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cA Man Worth While 


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cA Man Worth While 


Br 

JOHN PHILLIPS MEAKIN ^ 

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An Intertwining of a Series of Essays 
Forming, as a Whole, an Earnest Appeal for Honest Manhood. 
How to Live and Act on Earth 

o, 


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Copyright, 1913, by 
JOHN PHILLIPS MEAKIN 


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©CI.A382804 



IN DEDICATION 

♦ 

<1 In loving and appreciative devotion I dedicate 
this book, which is the epitome of my life’s 
thought and work, to my wife — my comrade, 
friend, and life companion. In looking back over 
our journey of forty years together, I ever see us, 
in sunshine, in rain, in joy, in sadness, hand in 
hand, side by side. When life has seemed to be 
a continuous battle and the struggle for accom- 
plishment almost beyond my strength, she has 
been a pillar of fortitude and has never failed 
me in thought, in word, in deed. When in 
moments of discouragement I have said, “I 
cannot,” she has always whispered, “You can.” 
When at times the light of friendship and suc- 
cess had seemingly gone out, her sunny pres- 
ence was ever with me, and has more than 
helped in sending forth this partial fulfillment 
of what I have dreamed through long and toil- 
some years to accomplish — namely, pointing a 
better way for the life and living of my brother 
man. When I think of my harmonious and joy- 
ous life with this splendid woman — the mother 
of my five good sons — I feel in my heart a 
modest pride of it being possible to teach men 
and women how to live and act on earth, — and 
so out of a full heart I dedicate this book to 

My Wife, 

SARAH FRANCES WOLCOTT MEAKIN. 



A PURPOSE IN LIFE 
+ 


Improve one’s self and help one’s fellow- 
men in unfolding the higher faculties and 
sensibilities which are latent in every human 
being, thus making them more humane, more 
thoughtful, more tolerant, and more kindly. 
€J To obtain a harmonious development in all 
phases of life, remembering always that there 
is no success except through the Virtues: — 
Truth, Sobriety, Purity, 
and Justice. 



CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introductory — Life and Religion . . . . i 

Here Is My Declaration .... 7 

Preface — A Man Worth While .... 9 

Optimism I3 

House by the Side of the Road .... 14 

Didn’t Think jy 

Success ; or, “ True Manhood ” .... 24 

Civilization 25 

Morning of Creation 29 

What Is Success? 30 

Emerson 31 

Bars to Progress 33 

Pertinent Queries 34 

Living a Fine Art 36 

Mind Makes the Man 37 

Aim for Perfection 40 

The Good Time Now (Poem). By Lizzie Doten 42 
Friendship — The Three Circles .... 45 

Seek Peace and Pursue It 50 

A Friend 54 

The Temple of Indwelling God .... 56 

Temple of the Soul 62 

Cultivation 64 

Truth 7° 

Honor and Honesty 73 

Gabbing 7 6 

Charity 80 

The Sixth Commandment 84 

Sunshine in the Morning — Mental Control 85 

Prejudice 87 

Race Prejudice 89 

Revenge 9 2 

ix 


X 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

What Might Be Done (Poem). By Charles 

Mackay 95 

Manhood vs. Intemperance 96 

Two Pictures 98 

My Mother’s Song 103 

A H-— — of a Time! 105 

Lincoln’s Assassinator 107 

Habits — Will You Pay the Price? . .114 

Music 1 16 

What to Do and What Not to Do .116 

Get the Habit 117 

To Young M$n 119 

The Drinking Habit 120 

Habits: Tobacco, Gambling, Lust, Drugs . 121 

Opportunity (Poem). By Walter Malone . .123 

The Habit of Idleness 125 

Extravagance 127 

To Be a Man — The Secret 129 

A Man: In the Higher Sense .... 131 

Manhood Achieved 133 

God and Religion 136 

A Good Religion 142 

Scattered Leaves and Falling Fruit . . .144 

Socrates (Poem). By Arthur Guiterman . 147 

God Is Love, and Love Is of God . . 148 

No Unbelief (Poem). By Edward Bulwer Lytton 151 

Love 152 

Over the Transom 152 

Love and Peace 153 

Two Mysteries (Poem). By Mary Mapes Dodge 158 

Think — Points 160 

Think! 161 

Devil Epistles 166 

Politics 166 

Fame 168 

Kindness — Try It 172 

How About It? 172 


CONTENTS 


Do Not Carry Firearms! 

Don’t Fool Yourself .... 

All the Same 

Cowards 

Borrowing 

Be Honest 

Weaklings 

Money 

Why? 

Don’t Be a Fish or a Shark . 

187,454 Insane People in Institutions 

United States 

Ten Rules 

Onward; or, The Builders 

Human Life (Poem). By Lord Byron 
A Hard-Fought Battle .... 

Civilization 

Civilized or Primitive? .... 

Two Forces 

Speech and Sound 

Fulfillment 

On the Up Grade 

Ever-changing Drama .... 

The Lights 

The Fraternal Age 

Never Say Fail! (Poem). Anonymous 

To the Boys 

“ What Fools These Mortals Be ” 

On the Street 

Indications of Manhood in a Boy . 
Mother and Father .... 

“Pore Ole Dad!” 

A Word of Mine 

Fraternal Influence — To You . 

When I Have Time .... 

The Friendly Hand 

The Sin of the World .... 
To Be Courteous 


PAGE 

• 175 

. I8l 
. 182 
. 182 
. . 187 
. 189 
. igi 
. I92 
. I96 
. I97 
in the 

. 198 
. 203 
. 204 
. 210 
. 210 
. 211 
. 212 
. 214 
. 220 
. 223 
. 225 
. 226 
. 227 
. 231 

• 237 
. 238 
. 240 
. 246 
. 248 
. 249 
. 251 

• 253 

• 253 

• 254 

• 256 
. 260 
. 261 


xii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Record of a Life 264 

The Good Life, Long Life (Poem). By Ben 

Jonson 265 

“Mamma, There’s Your Wood!” . . 266 

Dead Like a Dog 268 

There Is No Death 269 

“ I Didn’t Think ” 269 

Useless Toil 271 

Sail On and On 273 

Columbus (Poem). By Joaquin Miller . 275 

Abraham Lincoln 277 

Your Mission 279 

Blindy’s Corner 280 

The Nodding Flower 282 

Machine Civilization 284 

Love and Marriage 288 

To a Young Man 293 

To a Young Woman 296 

To Both — Thinkers 299 

Home, Sweet Home : 

The Family Is the Cradle of Mankind . . . 301 

John Howard Payne 301 

Home 302 

Character 304 

The Neck 306 

Ideals 309 

“ 4 I’ll Take What Father Takes ’” . . .310 

Character Is Necessary 312 

Perseverance — No Time to Waste . 314 


INTRODUCTORY 
LIFE AND RELIGION 


Good-morning! — Let me say of myself: 

I was born of Mormon parents — that is, 
they were members of the Church of Jesus 
Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in England ; 
for this, praise or blame counts just the 
same. They were sturdy and pure in 
their lives, and as I look back across the 
years I can more fully realize their ever- 
beautiful inspiration and spiritual unfold- 
ment, and in delightful retrospection I find 
to some extent a reason for my heart yearn- 
ings to assist in building a nobler manhood 
and a better world. Yes, my parents were 
Mormons — Latter-Day Saints, — honest ones, 
which I am proud to state and claim — 
but, according to this world’s calculations, it 
was an unfortunate condition to be born to, 
if what is termed success, at this stage of the 
world’s civilization, is really a success. This 
fact of Mormon birth affected my whole life; 
it has been a continuous battle from the first 
commencement exercises up to the present 
grade. In boyhood it was the cause of insult 
and ostracism, even at times resulting in 
physical combat. I was subject to the “ cold 
shoulder ” and the “ vacant stupid stare ” 
from my playmates, because I was a “ Mor- 


2 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


mon boy.” It affected my education in boy- 
hood and through the same cause I was 
sent, at the age of eighteen, a lone youth, to 
this country to become a stranger in a 
strange land, many thousand miles from 
home. 

In America, “ the land of the free,” I regret 
to confess I have found as much fanaticism 
and lack of toleration religiously as in Eng- 
land, the home of my boyhood. While at 
the knee of my mother — my priestess — we 
talked these conditions over. We got the 
idea that man’s destiny was not necessarily 
stationary on the plane of so-called humane 
and religious life, but that he could grow 
into the light of a better and clearer under- 
standing of life and its beauteous gifts, and 
by her I was ordained a teacher; the world 
was to be my church, the blue sky its dome. 
My creed was to be love and purity. I was 
to worship God by helping man to help him- 
self, through cultivation of the true man- 
hood within the man, that he might reach 
into higher, nobler, and happier realms of 
life and living. I was admonished that to 
be a teacher, my everyday life must be 
crowned by a clean, honest, reasoning man- 
hood. This Mother-priestess was the great- 
est soul I have ever known in life, and I have 
been true to the vows given at the altar of 
home. I grew into manhood and found the 
people running in sects and tribes, each abus- 
ing the other, every one claiming the other 
was wrong. Family against family, church 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 3 

against church, everybody at outs with every- 
body. They turned their backs on the needs 
of poor, suffering, starving, struggling hu- 
manity, in this world; their hands, their eyes, 
and their heels were up in the clouds. They 
repeated prayers and chanted songs, each 
claiming a copyright on various plans and 
schemes for salvation, — not salvation for here 
and now in this world, but in some far-away 
time and place after death. The people sel- 
dom expressed a kindly word to their family 
or neighbors while their ears were tuned in 
life, but after death the music, the flowers, 
the fuss and feathers were surely enough, if 
the dead could see, to make them laugh. The 
rule was, — and still is, to a very great extent, 
— thistles and nettles in life, roses and forget- 
me-nots when dead. — I saw all of this and 
realized it. My heart yearned for a little 
consistency, a thinking happier world. I de- 
termined to devote my life, as an individual, 
to change conditions, if only amongst a few. 
I haven’t accomplished much, but I have made 
some little progress. I am sure you will 
agree with me that there is plenty of work in 
this line yet to do, and no one has ever ac- 
cused me of being lazy. My first object is 
not to save my soul by shouting “ I believe,” 
but to make it worth saving by doing, — so 
here I am, singing my songs of love. The 
people of all creeds and of all nationalities 
are my brothers and sisters, and if I am not 
going to “ your ” heaven after death, don’t 
worry. We all have our different ideas and 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


4 

conceptions, do we not? What is Heaven 
to you might be the reverse to me. What 
is one man’s relish may be another man’s 
finish. 

In early manhood I drifted out into the 
open sea of life away from organized religion; 
I heard nothing but quarrels amongst the 
people, in the churches and out of them. 
So, when I got my “ bearings,” I looked 
about me for avenues in which I might labor 
in the cause of humanity, — in institutions 
which would not destroy my individuality 
nor rob me of my personal thoughts and as- 
pirations by rule or catechism. The Order 
of the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal society, 
was my first craft or school of brotherly love. 
The lessons the boys read to me from the 
ritual were as pleasing as an oasis and as 
refreshing as a rippling stream found in a 
desert by a weary traveler. From this I 
went to similar organizations — the Elks, the 
Odd Fellows, the Eagles, Woodmen of the 
World, and others. They each of them told 
me their objects and purposes, which blended 
with mine in heart and mind. I was very 
happy in my findings, and while I have ex- 
perienced many disappointments in men, the 
star of Fraternal love never was shining 
brighter than now. It is lighting my path- 
way on and on. I am a fraternalist. I be- 
lieve in the Fatherhood and am personally 
acquainted with the undeveloped brotherhood. 
My earnest prayer, in words and work, has 
ever been that I might be of some service to 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 5 

humanity, in its climbing slowly and pain- 
fully the long stairway of progress. 

The question has been asked many times as 
to my religion or my creed. I have been 
censured by some and complimented by 
many who were sure that I belonged to their 
individual party, because truth is truth, and 
wherever it is heard or spoken, it is in perfect 
tune, harmonizing in rhythm and in form 
like the chords of a gigantic orchestra. I 
love the truth wherever it is found, and its 
source is boundless. I was taught on my 
journey from boy to man, by my parents, to 
be kind, to be honest. They told me to live, 
— to love and to enjoy, and to labor for the 
betterment and intellectual happiness of 
human-kind. This has been my life’s aim. 
I have done my best for all I have met on 
life’s rough and uneven highway. 

“ Not more of light I ask, oh God, 

But eyes to see what is; 

Not sweeter songs, but power to hear 
The present melodies.” 

I saw a beautiful play some time ago en- 
titled, “ The Servant in the House.” One 
of the characters was named Manson; re- 
verse the syllables and it reads “ Son-man,” — 
Son of Man. Manson was the leading char- 
acter and he beautifully illustrated the 
Christ, going about in his simplicity, doing 
kindly deeds, cheering the outcast, lifting up 
the fallen and harmonizing the various ele- 


6 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


ments in and about the home, bringing order 
out of chaos, love out of hate; developing 
the higher traits in man and carrying aloft 
the torch of kindly love and reason, thus giv- 
ing light to the feet of poor stumbling hu- 
manity. During the play, an under-servant, — 
being unable to comprehend the actions of 
the “ Master-servant,” — in sharp, unkindly 
tones, demanded to know Manson’s religious 
belief. Said he, “ What’s your creed? What 
do you believe? Tell me, I want to know.” 
The Son of Man answered, in gentle tones, 
“ I hardly know how to answer you, but, 
Sir, I love God and my brothers ! ” The un- 
developed man in amazement exclaimed, “ All 
of them? ” And again the Master answered, 
“ Yes, all of them! ” To-day I am proud to 
say, I love God and my brothers, — all of 
them. 

Thus far in the path of life, in spirit and 
in action, I have aimed to follow in His foot- 
steps. Through this love of my brothers — 
all of them — I have, at times, been misunder- 
stood, while defending one sect or party 
against another, some members of the 
various sects, parties, or tribes have spoken 
harshly and have given me, as it were, the 
“ marble heart,” the vacant stare, but ere- 
long the tribe that had given me the cold 
and clammy hand found me in the front 
ranks defending and protecting their tribe 
or sect, for I am always with the accused or 
the abused. Thus many are confused as to 
my belief and my creed. Many have asked, 


A MAN WORTH WHIJ.E 7 

in no uncertain tones, “ What’s your creed? 
What do you believe? ” 


HERE IS MY DECLARATION 

I love God! I am in love with Life, I am 
ambitious, first — to be a man; then to be a 
minister of cheery sunshine, of love; to be a 
teacher of the Gospel of intellectual, humane, 
and moral development. During the re- 
maining years of my life, my talents and 
energies will be put forth to augment the 
sum of human happiness, that I may leave 
the world a little better and brighter for 
having lived in it. My work will be done 
according to the light and the strength I 
have to pursue it, with an earnest desire to 
accomplish some little of that to which my 
life is dedicated. Intertwined with my 
earnest thought and hope for public good, 
in sending forth this little book, I must say, 
to be sincere, that I have a personal interest 
which embraces a natural necessity, — namely, 
I hope to dispose of many of these books so 
that my wife and myself may have a com- 
fortable living while we are here on earth. 
Our five boys are old enough to care for 
themselves. I shall endeavor always to be 
a worthy example, by my life and by my 
works, of “ How to Live and Act on Earth.” 

These are the reasons for publishing this 
book, “ A Man Worth While.” 

—JOHN PHILLIPS MEAKIN. 













PREFACE 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 

“ What hidden music dwells within our 
souls, 

Whose wondrous sweetness never outward 
rolls, 

Rut sings within our nature’s inmost shrine, 
Producing gladness like a joy divine. 

Yet how much better if each nature knew 
Just how to give expression grand and true 
To that which struggles for its life within; 
’Twould sweeten life in this world’s weary 
din.” 

I believe that every man is of divine origin, 
and am fully cognizant of an invisible 
reasoning spirit-conscience — a higher and bet- 
ter self, — a voice in the silence, of which the 
human brain is the instrument of power, 
which, if cultivated and the voices harkened 
unto, will endow man with courage and guide 
his footsteps while bravely climbing to higher 
levels of life, into the sunlight of knowledge, 
to a clearer and more perfect understanding 
of life and its purposes, onward and upward 
forever. 

The wrongs and sufferings of the world 
are simply mistakes and errors existing 
9 


10 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


through human weakness and vile primitive 
ignorance, which, when the higher and better 
self of man assumes control, will have 
been corrected, and peace and harmony will 
then prevail. 

This hoped-for condition cannot be achieved 
by wealth, by conquest, by armies or navies. 
It can only be brought about by developing 
the higher nature in man — the humane, the 
intellectual, the spiritual, in other words, by 
civilizing man, in the highest sense. 

There is a higher and deeper law than those 
made by ordinary man and framed in statutes 
and constitution law books. We may desig- 
nate it as the law of the soul, of honor, love, 
affection, sustained by an invisible monitor 
which was born in man and is a part of man 
and a part of the unfathomable Divinity. 
This law of love, of justice, and of truth has 
been growing toward the light in and through 
man since he first turned his eyes from the 
sod to the stars. When this law of the soul 
holds sway, when knowledge of the real and 
the true philosophy of life is brought forward, 
rightly understood and adhered to; man will 
then cast off fooling and silly outward trap- 
pings, the display of egotism and feathered 
vanity. Moral worth will then be held higher 
and of more value than robes of royal purple. 

The God-Man will be then revealed in splen- 
dor, and man shall be — man! standing erect 
in the light of reason, a character with spot- 
less honor and strict integrity, knowing for 
himself right from wrong, — Master-King and 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


ii 


Priest of himself. From the radiant center 
of God-life shall the human face be illumined, 
telling the inner story, the secret of the soul, 
the actual development of the mind. 

As the light of the morning scatters the 
darkness of the night, awakens the slumber- 
ing millions, starts the husbandman on his 
way of toil and sets the wheels of industry 
in motion, so will the unfolding of the better 
part of human life arouse man to action and 
to duty, inspiring him to climb the heights 
to higher glories, a broader destiny. Thus 
will the night shades of selfishness, injustice, 
fear, envy, hate, and jealousy be dispelled, 
fading away in the light of the new day. 

Intellectual reasoning and spiritual life are 
a matter of awakening in man all the high- 
est qualities we can conceive, unfolding all 
that is sublime. Educational institutions, 
churches, and fraternal societies are, or should 
be, factors or rungs in the ladder leading men 
toward a brighter light, to the higher forms 
of living. 

Each individual must aim and decide for 
himself the plan of his life, his place, his 
power of climbing the ladder, out of the dark- 
ness into the light. 

The soul of every human being must have 
an awakening of desire in mind and spirit if 
that individual is to be of any worth, or if 
that soul is to expand into a righteous, blos- 
soming thought-life. If there is not an 
awakening, the inner latent beauties and 
qualities of the individual will never be known. 


12 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


Millions of lives have been wasted for want 
of an awakening to realize the possibilities 
and the beauties in and of their higher and 
better selves. 

If I can arouse only a few of my “ brothers 
and sisters ” to action, with a brief word of 
mine, which makes for their betterment, I 
shall be satisfied; though I be nameless or 
live without recognition of men, I shall die 
content. 

Our brothers who “ fall by the wayside in 
life,” or those less fortunate, if we may use 
the term, must be made to feel that they are 
not alone, and that society is not their enemy. 
By society I do not mean the set of silly idlers 
who fancy living in an exclusive circle and 
occupying themselves, as gracefully as may 
be, who strut and seem to think they are the 
cream of the cream, the very essence of hu- 
manity; these are only the butterflies of the 
warmer air; their spots are curious, they are 
beautiful to look at, but they are only a small 
part of society. 

By society, I mean the great world built 
up by religion, politics, art, literature, science, 
commerce, and their votaries. 

Punishment and ostracism can never make 
a bad man good. To curse a weakling will 
never make him strong. We know it would 
be a very childish thing on our part to scold 
or to punish a baby for the simple reason of 
its being a baby. We must educate and de- 
velop, and erelong the real man in the man 
will awaken and long for better things. He 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


13 


will climb the heights, turn his back on low 
life and nastiness ; work out his own salvation, 
or, in other words, crown his life with a noble 
manhood. *-?j 

There isn’t a human being living but that, 
deep down in his or her heart, would prefer 
to live an honest life rather than a dishonest 
one, a straight one rather than a crooked one, 
a pure one in preference to an impure one. 
The majority of men do not sin from choice 
but through ignorance, and again, many are 
driven to it by care, want, heartlessness, 
meanness, and selfishness. The rest of them, 
we may say, “ they know not what they do.” 
It is for the workers to rectify the wrongs of 
the world by wise humane laws, and espe- 
cially by the proper training of the mind by 
humane philosophic teachers, and thus arouse 
the slumbering, latent qualities in man to ac- 
tion, — into life. In other words, opening the 
avenues of the minds of men and women to 
the glories of a thriving expanding intel- 
lectuality. 

OPTIMISM 

To be optimistic does not mean that we 
shall close our eyes to the wrongs about us. 

The fool is he who dances on the upper 
deck of a ship regardless of smoldering fires 
in the hold, and boasts of being an optimist. 

To correct errors and right wrongs, we 
must first be alert and see them and then 
understand them, and then think about them, 


i 4 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

and then quickly get down to work at the 
pumps. 

There is no time to idle away. To-day 
man, in general, is but an educated machine, 
without a humane heart or a soul-guiding 
conscience. In proof of this, look about you 
and think of conditions. See the cruelty con- 
tinually practiced by man on man, master and 
slave. Listen to the cries of white-faced, 
half-starved children in hovel, street, and fac- 
tory. See the depravity and dishonesty 
everywhere, money-mad. Confidence in man, 
by man, is dying, and men’s promises are 
like broken reeds. Men are scarce whose 
word “ is their bond.” The trend of life 
seems to be to make men honest by machin- 
ery, registers, and force. 


HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF 
THE ROAD 

The horrors and the sorrows of the present 
age can only be even partially comprehended 
by people who think and have eyes to see and 
ears to hear. 

I have seen from the windows of my 
house, by the side of the road, the sorrows 
of the world. I have felt the anguish in my 
heart. I have seen the oppression and shame. 
I have heard the lamentations of remorse of 
young and old men with ruined lives brought 
about by their own undoing, by recklessness 
and sin. I have seen the results of low life — 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 15 

mothers and children neglected, gaunt-eyed, 
abused by wretched men — called husbands. 

I see the youth of our country a vile se- 
ducer, I see young women, thoughtless and 
careless of life and its consequences. I see 
jealousy, quarreling, and murders. I see 
chaos and hell all about me. I see divorce 
courts separating husbands and wives, or- 
phaning innocent children, and thus casting 
them out into a cold and selfish world, the 
home destroyed. I see starving thousands 
in a land of plenty. I realize the depraved 
selfishness and awful stupidity at the bottom 
of these unhappy conditions — the awful truth. 
The man of heart and with a thoughtful 
brain, in operation, cannot be satisfied nor 
contented with this world as it is now. He 
cannot be happy and enjoy even that which 
he honestly earns and calls his own, knowing 
that the greater number of his brothers and 
sisters are in the throes of misery, of hunger 
and despair. I know of one heart that yearns 
with a longing that knows no bounds to con- 
tribute his mite toward the alleviation and 
elevation and the bettering of conditions 
among the children of men. 

The cry continually goes up that “ God is 
love,” by “ the people on the upper deck,” 
but man has to prove this by his course of 
living. “ Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do 
not the things which I say? ” No practical 
demonstration of the idea that God is love can 
be found in a band of savages, unless, perhaps, 
some of us behold the beauty and love in 


16 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

nature, outside of man; and exclaim, with 
Dr. Watts: “ Where every prospect pleases, 
and only man is vile.” 

Everywhere the lamp of reason seems to 
be flickering, and in many instances ex- 
tinguished. 

Men and ministers in the various societies 
and churches quarrel on silly and unimportant 
questions, such as “ Who shall be the chair- 
man? ” seeking empty honors; “ Jonah and 
the whale ! ” “ Who shall have the best posi- 
tion? ” etc., and while these great men (?) 
are busy arguing these trifling foolish things, 
the flocks, the people, are going astray 
through the leaders’ lack of adherence to 
principle, and through the lack of proper 
teaching, of a higher education, of how to 
live and act on earth as humans should, 

The people need to be taught calm cour- 
age and thus allay our childish fears. So- 
cieties and institutions with high-sounding 
names and with members bedecked in fine 
feathers meet in form and display, the main 
purpose seemingly to be president, or to get 
a medal, or to be called an outlandish name, 
the written objects and higher purposes are 
overlooked, and, in the main, ceremonies are 
the only remaining features. 

If, under the present status of the human 
mind, some frenzied fellow shouts “ Fire,” or 
if the slightest rumble is heard; men and 
women are panic-stricken, stampede like cat- 
tle, and trample each other down to death. 

Railroads are killing thousands of people 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 17 

every year through lack of thought-power, — 
“ I didn’t think.” 

In our large cities, in an instant, with the 
slightest rumble of excitement, mobs are 
formed, and hell at once prevails. Prejudice 
and public clamor are the weapons used for 
the righting of a wrong, whether that wrong 
be imaginary or real. 


DIDN’T THINK 

“ This most unpleasant imp of strife, 
Pursues us everywhere. 

There’s scarcely one whole day in life 
He does not cause us care: 

Small woes and great he brings the world, 
Strong ships are fprced to sink: 

And trains from iron tracks are hurled 
By stupid Didn’t Think.” 

Our penitentiaries, jails, insane asylums, 
reform schools are all crowded and we have 
originated judicial fathers, known as juvenile 
courts, to care and act for the young, instead 
of their parents, who, it is claimed, have lost 
the parental control. Yet a premium is 
placed upon the largest number of children — 
the kind cuts no figure or the question is 
given very scant consideration. 

During the past few years the keepers of 
many of our public places have been proved 
to be as wicked and as foolish as those in- 


18 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

carcerated. It is a pity the investigators 
can’t be investigated, then some good might 
be the result, for in most cases they work 
for the same low selfish end. — “ The devil 
quotes Scripture for his own purposes,” and 
when two people are calling each other liars 
they are probably both telling the truth. 

Our big libraries, our office shelves, are 
filled with books of law, our country is 
swarming with lawyers. At the slightest 
suggestion we run to the Capitol and frame 
a new law. The idea of making thinkers by 
combining the development of brain and 
heart, has been almost unthought of, and is 
left unexpressed, there is but little effort put 
forth in this direction. 

To stop whisky drinking and gambling we 
aim to kill, or at least throw bricks at, the 
saloon-keeper, and club the man at the wheel. 

Foolishness will cease, saloons will close 
when the people think and know better than 
to guzzle, to gamble, to steal, and not until 
then. Men will be men when they know how 
to be men. Snakes cannot be killed by tramp- 
ling on their tails. We operate continually 
at the wrong end of the business. 

In the mental world thought power is fail- 
ing. We see on all sides of us a tumbling 
down of the higher traits in man. Surely now 
is the time to work. Our souls need to be 
stirred to the very depths that we may realize 
to some extent the world’s mad condition, 
then to pause and think of the possibilities 
of the human mind if under proper control; 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


i9 


to realize that each of us are potent factors 
in development, of ourselves, and in the ele- 
vation of the race. 

The status of the mind of humanity at the 
present time is in a great measure due to the 
present system of education, namely teaching, 
rather than developing, pouring in instead of 
bringing out or awakening the latent possi- 
bilities, the divinity which is within. 

A thinker with barely any effort may 
see and learn of the awful state of igno- 
rance existing among high school and col- 
lege graduates throughout the United States. 
They have some book learning, but there has 
never been any attempt made to impart edu- 
cation in its relation to life. 

These young people have to obtain their 
first real knowledge of life after they leave 
school. 

Education should begin at the bottom, not 
at the top of the tree. 

This must be an age of new ideas and of 
advancement; the work is ours to do and the 
time to do it is now. 

These present systems and conditions must 
be changed, these wrongs must be righted 
before we may truthfully boast of our achieve- 
ments, or of what we term civilization. If 
these wrongs and conditions cannot be righted 
or improved, then human life is a horrible 
farce and one continuous tragedy. 

It may take millions of years to bring it 
about or to make a very perceptible headway 
for thinking men with brains and clear think- 


20 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


in g minds are of slow growth, but surely 
civilization is on its way. 

History’s pages tell us of the awful strug- 
gle it has been all across the ages, — this 
journeying toward the light. It has taken 
years upon years, multiplied by millions, to 
bring man to his present stage. Yet, amid 
all the horrors of the present and beyond all 
doubts and fears, let us cling to the hope and 
to the thought that the advancement made 
and the victories achieved show to us that 
there is no need of discouragement, but to 
the contrary, may we not see through the 
light of our own individual lives the unfold- 
ing possibilities and thus retain in our souls 
the defined hope, inspiring others with the 
same thought and feeling that know no wan- 
ing, by teaching that man’s destiny is far be- 
yond this hurrying, chattering, drinking, sen- 
sational plane we now are living on. 

In the main it is ignorance that makes men 
sin, wisdom does not allow it. I am fully 
convinced that a nobler human life is simply 
a matter of arousing the slumbering millions 
into action that they may catch glimpses of 
the wonders and the beauties awaiting un- 
foldment in the vast ocean of the intellectual, 
the moral, and spiritual realms. Every hu- 
man is better than he seems. 

Let us touch upon another destructive 
phase of life. Simple ordinary observation, 
with Governmental official figures giving 
facts, will tell to any thoughtful person the 
sad story of so many of our young men and 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


21 


women who are undermining the very founda- 
tion of their manhood and womanhood, mak- 
ing of themselves weaklings and incompe- 
tents, bringing sorrow to their homes, de- 
struction to their prospects, and, in general, 
retarding human progress, by indulging in 
various and vicious forms of dissipation, of 
stupid, selfish, sinful living. 

The knowledge of all these facts of condi- 
tions in life, gained from many sources, 
prompted me to address my brothers and sis- 
ters, especially the younger ones. 

In my aiming to do “ this work ” as an in- 
dividual among individuals, without finan- 
cial aid of men, societies, or organizations, I 
therefore have no public hall in which to 
speak, from the rostrum, my prayer having 
been and will always be “ God bless us 
everyone,” and not — 

“ Oh Lord, bless me and my wife, 

My son John and his wife; 

Us four and no more. 

Even so. Amen.” 

This fact leaves me practically to work alone 
in the field and I take this book form of put- 
ting into circulation my thoughts and feelings, 
hoping, thereby, to reach many men and many 
women. 

My temple is the world, its dome is the 
sky, its pews are the streets, the factory, 
the home, the mountain-side, or the banks of 
the River Jordan, — anywhere and everywhere 


22 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


young men, old men, old women, and young 
women are to be found. 

The message I would give by word, by 
precept, and example is not to obtain, but to 
attain. 

“ My conscience is my crown ; 
Contented thoughts my rest; 

My heart is happy in itself, 

My bliss is in my breast.” 

My only desire is to assist in building an 
earnest, thinking manhood. God’s monitor — 
conscience — called me to the work, conscience 
has been my guide. I have not been ordained 
by an organized church or a society of men, 
and never have sold my talents for a mess 
of pottage. Furthermore, I have no report 
to make, except to the one and only Master 
— Almighty God. 

In the words of George Eliot: 

“ Oh, may I join the choir invisible 
Of those immortal dead who live again 
In minds made better by their presence.” 

Having passed the threescore milestone on 
life’s highway without failure or regret, 
thankful for having been blessed with just 
about all, or at least a full share, of nature’s 
choicest gifts — namely, an open mind, talents 
embracing music and song, ideality and 
memory, with eyesight to see the beauties 
of the world, and with ears to hear the music; 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


23 


a harmonious family relationship, several real 
friends, and many cheerful acquaintances; 
and without a turned down page in my life’s 
record in or of the past; without the slightest 
tinge of superstition or of fear for the future ; 
having had a joyous, successful, happy trip 
all along the way, I submit this, my message, 
how to be a man worth while. 


SUCCESS; OR, “ TRUE MANHOOD ” 


“ Build it well what’er ye do, 

Build it straight and strong and true, 
Build it high and clean and broad, 

Build it for the eye of God.” 

Men, my Brothers — 

Many of you are just starting in the race 
of life, the future rises before you, green with 
garlands, bright with flowers, golden with 
promise. You may make or mar your des- 
tiny. 

We must examine ourselves to learn 
whether it is the perfect radiant life we are 
striving for, or is it a tinseled prize which 
only distorted manhood brings! 

I am going to write on the subject of suc- 
cess or true manhood, but first let us under- 
stand each other. My idea of success may 
not be yours. I do not mean success or man- 
hood in the narrow sense of gaining some 
petty victory, the success of wealth, of power 
or glory. I do not mean to tell you how to 
become a great captain of industry, a financial 
giant like Morgan, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, or 
Rockefeller, nor a general like Moltke, Grant, 
or Napoleon; neither would I instruct you in 
the art of diplomacy or statesmanship; the 
mysteries of religion nor the intricacies of 

24 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 25 

politics. A man may be great in all these, 
and yet be a very unsuccessful man, when 
considered from a universal standpoint; when 
measured by the growth of his soul, the de- 
velopment of his character, his body and his 
mind, or the accomplishment of the great 
purpose of life — of an ever-unfolding, pure, 
earnest, honest manhood, untrammeled by 
the fetters of caste, conceit, ignorance, and 
bigotry. 


CIVILIZATION 

True or pure civilization is not in founda- 
tion of granite or marble, not in skyscrapers, 
not in pomp or show, not in making money, 
not in medals on the breast, not in fuss and 
feathers; but in foundations of character and 
reasoning power, with absolute integrity sup- 
porting the structure — man. We continually 
read and hear about our cities' growth, our 
big buildings, our large population, our gilded 
halls, our flying machines, our automobiles, — 
we forever boast of our physical and material 
achievements. But the pages of history teach 
us that the material achievements and archi- 
tectural adornments often outlive our mental, 
or that which has been, and which is now, 
termed civilization. 

The great need in the world to-day is men; 
not a herd of unthinking humans born to be- 
come slaves to petty tyrants whose only idea 
is a golden god combined with sensual pleas- 


26 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


ures. No, no, — far from it! It is not a big 
population we need, it is a better one, a race 
of men stronger and more perfectly balanced. 
Men of character are the need of the day. 
Men whose minds are developed in strict in- 
tegrity and in manly honor; men who own 
themselves; men who won’t lie, men who be- 
lieve in truth. Men who are broad-minded, 
men who are deep-hearted, full of love and 
wisdom, their hearts continually beating in 
true affection for humankind; just plain, true, 
honest, thinking men and women, imparting 
their influence of joy and sunshine not only 
in their immediate circle, but wherever they 
may go and to all they may meet on life’s 
rough highway. 

Our country needs men who are fraternal 
at heart, men who believe in the Fatherhood 
of God, men who know and love the brother- 
hood, who stand ready at all times to aug- 
ment the sum of human happiness. Men who 
do not criticise Almighty God for having 
created a black-skinned man, a red-skinned 
man, or a white-skinned man. 

Schools and colleges must be established 
in every town and city, teaching the principles 
of and developing real men. These schools 
shall be conducted with absolute mental lib- 
erty. Race or geographical location, with 
belief or no belief, faith or no faith, creed or 
no creed, these trimmings shall not cut any 
figure. Men — all men — shall be welcome 
within the portals. Real civilization — scholar- 
ship — manhood alone, shall count. The ob- 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 27 

ject to be attained is — heart, mind, and soul 
men. Over the archway shall be inscribed: 

The College of Manhood — 

How to Live and Act on Earth. 

Here shall be welcome old and young, rich 
or poor, strong or weak, brave or discouraged, 
all may come and learn the lessons of true 
living; receive encouragement and loving, 
honest advice; not from a lawyer or a busi- 
ness man, nor from a dollar man, but from 
a brother man, one who loves his fellowman, 
who sees his God in men’s eyes, in clouds, in 
sunshine, in rain, in bud, in vine and flower, 
in life itself. In this school, people will be 
mentally, if not physically, healed. 

Money spent in raising such real men, and 
women will give better and more lasting re- 
sults than millions put into skyscrapers, com- 
merce, and trade. 

There is nothing of importance anywhere, 
only service to man, the building of the race. 

The world should not be a windowless, sun- 
less workshop where slaves wear away their 
lives in tribulation and toil. It should be a 
home, a field where Nature gives forth her 
many gifts and blessings to all of God’s chil- 
dren, where the husbandman sings his songs 
of love, labors in joy, and at night rests in 
peace. The sweat-of-the-brow business has 
been overdone; the majority of the world to- 
day are worked to death, underpaid, and un- 
derfed. 


28 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

The various vexing problems will have been 
solved when the intelligence and humane 
qualities of man have been developed to a 
plane high enough to stop selfish accumula- 
tion and think of intelligent distribution. 
The world and its beauties are not yours or 
mine, — they are “ ours.” 

When the rich have been saved from their 
riches, and the poor have been saved from 
their poverty, we shall then have a normal 
and happy civilization. 

The world is big enough for all men to 
live comfortably, and man’s capacity for pro- 
ducing is great enough; it is his system of 
distribution that is at fault. Extirpate low 
selfishness from the hearts of men, and we 
will not then live in a semi-hell, but in a 
happy realization of a heaven on earth. 

If you believe in perfection as a worth, in 
human endeavor, then no service is possible 
which harms your body, that occupies your 
mind with petty ignoble matters, which makes 
your heart less genuine and sympathetic. A 
perversion or stunting of any side of your 
nature is an inroad upon the whole. Only 
that service is good for you and good for the 
community which leaves you a truer, sounder, 
more wholesome man. 

Life is filled with glittering illusions. We 
spend our youthful energies, our manhood, 
and above all the precious hours of exultant 
life in chasing the phantoms of happiness, in 
fun and frolic, only to find in the end, after 
it is all over and old age creeps upon us, that 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 29 

the things we sought are not the things we 
wanted, and that the things we really wanted 
and needed we left far behind in the valley 
of youth, or, in other words, we killed the 
coming man, while in boyhood. Therefore, 
to the end that life may not close with regrets 
and recollections of a misspent life, but rather 
with a serene consciousness of an honorable 
maturity, we must look to ourselves and our 
conduct in the present — the here and the now. 

To love, to comfort, and to aid therein is 
life divine. 


MORNING OF CREATION 

In the dawning of the morning of creation, 
God sent forth a predestined law — a punish- 
ment for errors made; — namely, a step once 
taken is followed by its consequential steps, 
and no amount of prayer, worship, or flattery 
can set aside this law — an act must be fol- 
lowed by its consequence. This law carries 
a punishment to fit the crime in every phase 
of life. 

Whatever you may have of that which is 
called religion, if you are not true in the wear 
and tear of everyday life, though you may 
imagine it to be united with the angels, it 
it not worth while for you, and will not en- 
able you to win life’s race. 

Perhaps you have heard the story of the 
old man who had a long journey to take. 
The road was strange, rugged, and uncertain, 


3 o A MAN WORTH WHILE 

so he prudently provided himself with a 
lantern. He was overtaken by a young man 
who ridiculed him, likewise his lantern, and 
passed on, brave, self-confident, priding him- 
self on his superior wisdom. He soon out- 
stripped the old man. The day wore away 
and the night came on. The old man by the 
light of his lantern traveled safely, but out 
of the darkness he heard a cry of distress. It 
came from the young man, who had lost his 
way and had fallen into a morass, which was 
rapidly drawing him under. The more he 
struggled the deeper he sank into the mire. 
“ Ah,” said the old man, “ if you had provided 
yourself with a lantern you would have seen 
that the path lay along the side and not 
through the middle of the bog.” See, here, 
a picture of those who start in life without 
fixed principles of right to guide them. 


WHAT IS SUCCESS? 

Those things which will hang on to you 
like dead weights are bad habits, and they are 
legion. 

Do you ask what is habit? It is the repeti- 
tion of an act. You repeat it until it be- 
comes second nature. 

What is success? An illustration may be 
of service at this point. There is a vast dif- 
ference in that which is called success and a 
truly successful life. That people or nation 
which has for its chief comedy the juggling 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


3i 

and debauching of the wording of the Golden 
Rule, to make it read “ Do to others what 
they would do to you, but do them first,” and 
where dishonesty is looked upon as a joke and 
an honest man as a failure, to be laughed 
at, — is not a very propitious environment for 
character-building. 

In America “ success ” means — Gold — ac- 
cumulation of wealth, pomp, show, fun, and 
follies. By the prevailing idea or basis of 
success, the majority of men are, and of 
necessity must be, failures. We must change 
our ideas and teachings from the worship of 
“ success ” to the admiration and teaching of 
efficiency in all phases of life — a connected 
system, as it were, of the different sciences 
and arts — and thus produce a well-balanced 
race of reasoning men. Efficiency shall mean 
not to conquer man but to help man. In 
America we must cultivate a new standard — 
a national spirit — higher ideals ; and thus 
through the individual only can we build a 
national honor and an integrity worthy of 
our fathers and of the glorious spirit and 
sentiment the flag of our country represents. 


EMERSON 

Let us look for a moment at Emerson, — 
Ralph Waldo Emerson, — that great-souled 
sage of Concord. 

Emerson was a successful man because he 
derived more out of life than the great ma- 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


32 

jority of men. He went deep and wide into 
life. His nature was attuned to all the vibra- 
tions of the universe. His soul was so sen- 
sitized as to receive all the impressions that 
life could give. Never a flower bloomed but 
he breathed its fragrance; never a bird sang 
but he listened and heard its melody. 

From celestial fields in the quiet hours of 
the night he heard the music of the spheres, 
and as he passed amidst the busy throngs 
of noonday, he saw and heard and felt all 
the heart-throbs of humanity. The clear 
vision of his soul was not obscured by the 
sordid things which attract the great mass 
of men. 

He was independent and free; bound to no 
creed or faction, he searched untrammeled 
for the truths of life, and found them. His 
ambition was to enrich himself, not by an- 
other's loss, but by enriching others, and he 
succeeded admirably. He was rich in wis- 
dom, love, and happiness, and he made others 
rich with the same kind of wealth. He lived 
to a ripe old age and passed peacefully into 
the shadow. The world is better, happier, 
wiser, and richer for his having lived. He 
was a successful man. He sought not for 
glory; it came to him unsought, and his name 
grows greater and brighter with the passing 
years. Emerson had the earnest desire to be 
an absolutely perfect man. 

Success in life does not only mean the 
winning of some great prize: it ought to mean 
the attainment of that physical and intellec- 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 33 

tual condition in the individual where all the 
various strings which make up the harp of 
life respond in fullest measure to the infinite 
vibrations of a throbbing, pulsing world. 


BARS TO PROGRESS 

Nature’s forces are never bribed. They 
are inexorable and eternal, and as certain as 
is the mystery called death. Every low 
thought, every bad habit, however insignifi- 
cant, is just as much of a mighty force turned 
against your progress to a successful perfect 
life. To reach the shining heights of man- 
hood, the higher faculties must be developed 
and brought into use. A man’s head must 
be right before he is right, and before he can 
travel right. Men cannot be men until they 
have been taught how. 

The capability of the human mind for ad- 
vancement cannot be estimated nor measured 
in words. Every day we may increase the 
possibility of that extraordinary thinking 
machine — the human brain, the human 
mind. 

Emerson said : “ What the world needs is 
men who will make us do the best we can.” 
To be an intelligent, helpful, kindly man 
should be the constant aim of every one of 
us. To accomplish this, one must have faith 
in God, faith in one’s self, and faith in hu- 
manity, ever keeping in mind: 


34 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


“ ’Tis not so much what we are now 
As what we may become. 

God reckons on the growth of man, 
Eternity gives room.” 


PERTINENT QUERIES 

The all-important question for everyone 
to ask of himself if he has the slightest spark 
of intellectual ambition in him is, How may 
I become a man? Then another question will 
well up from the soul, namely: What can I 
do to make life worth the living? The an- 
swer will be: Look to the light, be true to 
your inner self, and have the faith of the poet 
who said: — 

“ Better to strive and climb 
And never reach the goal, 

Than to drift along with time 
An aimless, worthless soul. 

Aye, better to climb and fall, 

Or sow, though the yield be small, 
Than to throw away, day after day, 
And never strive at all.” 

If we cannot make life worth the living, 
beyond simply a material existence, it seems 
to me that there is but little purpose in all 
of life’s worry and strife. Or, in other words, 
if there is nothing to do or hope for but busi- 
ness, to eat, to drink, and to quarrel with 
our fellows (as seemingly the majority of 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


35 


people do now), to sleep a little and then 
die ; in my estimation to rest at once in 
death’s embrace, a sleep from which never 
to awaken, would be preferred, for surely 
under such conditions, with no progress to 
be made, the whole of human life would be 
but a monstrous blunder; every man and 
every woman, living or dead, would be play- 
ing or have played the part of a serious 
fool. Hope is the pillar of the world, and 
this hope must be in the heart of every in- 
dividual well defined and with a worthy 
object in view every day of our lives. These 
aims must be strengthened and encour- 
aged continually by our highest ideals, for 
without ideals we surely drift like helmless 
vessels, without a beacon light either to warn 
or to cheer us, on life’s storm-tossed ocean. 

Quoting from Justice Oliver Wendell 
Holmes as to ideals, he says : “ They furnish 
us our perspectives and open glimpses of the 
Infinite. It is often a merit in an ideal to be 
unattainable; its being so keeps forever be- 
fore us something more to be done and saves 
us from the tedium of a monotonous life.” 

Let us then be careful in life as to how we 
act, as to where we go, and as to what we do, 
for when the bells of memory are sounded in 
after years, the melody will either be a cheer- 
ful blessing or a tolling curse. Therefore it 
is well that we should school ourselves in the 
problem of how to be men worth while, that 
we may conduct ourselves in honor and for 
good through all the dangers and difficulties 


36 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 

seen and unseen, if we would reach in old 
age the sun-kissed hills of peace, happiness, 
and content. 


LIVING A FINE ART 

Living is a fine art, and if life is worth 
anything at all it is worth getting out of it 
all there is in it, from the basis of the noblest 
and highest aspirations. 

Man should know something about every- 
thing and everything about something. As 
the earth drinks the rain of heaven so must 
man forever drink at the fountain of knowl- 
edge. 

It is better to be called a jack-of-all-trades 
and master of none, than to be a ninety-nine 
per cent, idiot and only a one per cent. man. 
Concentrate on one great idea or purpose, 
but understand and enjoy all of God’s bless- 
ings, and thus have through life all sources 
contributing to the whole of a well-rounded 
manhood. 

The prevailing idea, at this the present 
stage of civilization, of being practical is to 
know just one thing, or one note in the scale, 
and the whole of this one thing, or one note, 
is enveloped in conquering man by the rule 
of from one to one hundred per cent., and 
if this fails, then the sword. In my estima- 
tion these practical people, so called, miss the 
real things, the real pleasures of life, because 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 37 

of their impracticability. The practical man, 
it seems to me, is the man who gets the most 
out of life, who sees a divine purpose in living, 
in loving, in helping, in hoping, and in con- 
tributing his part toward the redemption of 
mankind, or in other words, in lifting them 
from under the curse of ignorance and caste, 
in broadening their vision, in tuning their ears 
to the one great melody — the harmonies of 
life. 


MIND MAKES THE MAN 

It is the mind that maketh good or ill, 

That maketh wretch * or happy, rich or poor. 

— Spenser. 


The great Charles Darwin in his youth was 
very fond of music, poetry, and painting, but 
he gave himself up entirely to science, the in- 
vestigation of the species, and he lost his 
taste for music, poetry, and art. He wrote 
very pathetically in his declining years, “ If 
I had my life to live over again I would have 
made a rule to read some poetry and listen 
to some music at least once a week, for per- 
haps the parts of my brain now atrophied 
would have thus been kept active through 
use.” 

If we do not use our best gifts and facul- 
ties they will be lost by disuse, and we be- 
come simply a part of our original self. 

* Wretched. 


38 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

By cultivation of the latent humane quali- 
ties, one often becomes really another being 
while remaining the same man. 

The athlete dies young if in his life the 
physical is not blended or kept in harmony 
by the pursuit of some intellectual and higher 
study than how to box, hunt, or shoot. The 
body physical may, in a sense, live or exist, 
but mind makes the man, and when this fades 
away or is not under control of a well-bal- 
anced temperament, ’twere better the body 
were dead also. This life is meant for the 
living, and the living will aim for perfection 
in mind and body. 

Many a young man gives promise of a 
bright future and rare development. . He 
seems to emerge from the mirage period of 
youth into the realities of maturity, but sud- 
denly he seems to drop back into the ranks 
of the incompetents and discontented. His 
mind becomes stagnant, it fails to grow be- 
yond the boyish stage, and he remains a boy. 
He takes no interest in the problems of life, 
he hears nothing, sees nothing beyond some- 
thing to eat and a game of ball. By custom 
he pays the preacher to save his soul. He 
eats and sleeps, and life to him is complete. 
These are the unbalanced creatures, the half- 
living and half made-ups who are inmates of 
the asylums, ninety-nine per cent, of which 
might have been averted if common sense had 
ruled their earlier years. 

This life of ours is useless if in old age or 
in any age the brain becomes defunct. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


39 


“ Life is a mystery, 

Death is a doubt; 

For men may be dead, 

Though walking about.” 

We hear on all sides of us such exclama- 
tions as these : “ Oh, I never go to church nor 
to a theater, lectures are of no interest to me, 
and the plays of the present day are horrid. 
I don’t like poetry, I don’t like grand opera, 
and comic opera is trash, and vaudeville, — oh 
well, that is on the same plane.” It is the 
same cry over again in the common things 
of everyday life, in the home, at the table, 
on the street, in the office, — we don’t like this 
and we don’t like that, and by our silliness 
we rob ourselves of the richest blessings at 
life’s banquet. We grumble, grumble, grum- 
ble, until we don’t like anything or anybody, 
and nobody likes us. 

To be a success, to be men and women 
worth while, we must be in love with life 
and everything that’s in it. 

Let it be said when the curtain falls: 

“ Calmly he looked on either life, and here 
Saw nothing to regret or there to fear; 
From nature’s temperate feast rose satisfied, 
Thanked Heaven that he had lived and that 
he died.” 


AIM FOR PERFECTION 


The germ of perfection is in every human 
being as the perfect or symmetrical oak tree 
is in the acorn. Could we but fully realize 
the evil effects of wrongdoing we could never 
be tempted to do wrong any more than we 
could be persuaded to thrust our hands into 
the fire, or cast ourselves into the sea. 

We are forced to the conclusion that only 
the development of the higher faculties and 
sensibilities will annihilate evil, and place 
man’s feet upon the paths leading onward 
and upward. In New York City I visited the 
Metropolitan Art Gallery, and the Hall de- 
voted to statuary claimed much of my atten- 
tion. But of these masterpieces, the model 
before which I stood the longest, because of 
the powerful lesson it taught, was a colossal 
group of two figures entitled, “ Two Natures 
in Man.” One figure is in a recumbent posi- 
tion with closed eyes, bestial features and 
huge, animal-like form. The other figure, 
representing the higher self, had struggled up 
to an almost erect position. The back is still 
bent and the eyes are still closed, but the face 
has become more refined and exalted in char- 
acter. The head is uplifted away from the 
earth and the outstretched hands are groping 

40 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


4i 

blindly toward the light. The lips of the 
standing figure seemed to say: 

“ Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom 

Lead thou me on; . . . 

I do not ask to see 

The distant scene; one step enough for me.” 

No work of art or literature has so im- 
pressed me, unless it be Robert Louis Steven- 
son’s novel, “ Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” 
We must dispel the clouds of ignorance, de- 
stroy the bestial appetite, strangle the brute, 
develop the man! 

We are all sculptors, only instead of with 
mallet and chisel giving form to cold marble, 
we fashion of ourselves a living, breathing 
image, the outward form of an inward grace, 
or the base resemblance of a distorted soul. 

The colossus of humanity, known as Man, 
has only struggled to his feet after being 
earth-bound by the ignorance and superstition 
of the centuries. 

We the individual sculptors must set about 
the mighty task of strengthening these bent 
shoulders and opening those closed lids and 
turning those groping hands toward the cer- 
tain sunlight of God’s mighty truth. 

“ I may not reach what I pursue, 

Yet will I keep pursuing; 

Nothing is vain that I can do, 

For soul-growth comes of doing.” 


THE GOOD TIME NOW 


By Lizzie Doten 

The world is strong with a mighty hope 
Of a good time yet to be, 

And carefully casts the horoscope 
Of her future destiny; 

And poet, and prophet, and priest, and sage 
Are watching, with anxious eyes, 

To see the light of that promised age 
On the waiting world arise. 

O, weary and long seems that time to some, 
Who under life’s burdens bow, 

For while they wait for that time to come, 
They forget ’tis a good time now. 

Yes, a good time now, — for we cannot say 
What the morrow will bring to view; 

But we’re always sure of the time to-day, 
And the course we may pursue; 

And no better time is ever sought, 

By a brave heart, under the sun, 

Than the present hour, with its noblest 
thought, 

And the duties to be done. 

’Tis enough for the earnest soul to see 
There is work to be done and how, 

For he knows that the good time yet to be 
Depends on the good time now. 

4 2 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


43 


There is never a broken link in the chain, 
And never a careless flaw, 

For cause and effect, and loss and gain, 

Are true to a changeless law. 

Now is the time to sow the seed 
For the harvest of future years, 

Now is the time for the noble deed, 

While the need for the work appears. 

You must earn the bread of your liberty 
By toil and the sweat of your brow, 

And hasten the good time yet to be, 

By improving the good time now. 

’Tis as bright a sun that shines to-day 
As will shine in the coming time, 

And truth has as weighty a word to say, 
Through her oracles sublime. 

There are voices in earth and air and sky 
That tell of the good time here, 

And visions that come to Faith’s clear eye, 
The weary in heart to cheer. 

The glorious fruit on life’s goodly tree 
Is ripening on every bough, 

And the wise in spirit rejoice to see 
The light of the good time now. 

The world rests not with a careless ease 
On the wisdom of the past — 

From Moses, and Plato, and Socrates, 

It is onward advancing fast; 

And the words of Jesus, and John, and Paul, 
Stand out from the lettered page, 

And the living present contains them all 
In the spirit that moves the age. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


44 

Great earnest souls, through the Truth made 
free, 

No longer in blindness bow, 

And the good time coming, the yet to be, 
Has begun with the good time now. 

Then up! nor wait for the promised hour, 
For the good time now is best, 

And the soul that uses its gift of power 
Shall be in the present blessed ; 

Whatever the future may have in store, 

With a will there is ever a way, 

And none need burden the soul with more 
Than the duties of to-day. 

Then up! with a spirit brave and free 
And put the hand to the plow, 

Nor wait for the good time yet to be, 

But work in the good time now! 



FRIENDSHIP 
THE THREE CIRCLES 


There should be formed in every man’s life 
and daily living what may be termed three 
circles, and all three of these circles should 
be well defined and rightly understood if we 
would enjoy ordinary continued happiness 
crowned with peace of mind. 

The outer, or larger circle, represents the 
human world, embracing all the people. 

The next circle is the circle of friendly ac- 
quaintances — these coming to us naturally by 
contact amongst the people of the world. 

The delicate, or refined inner circle, the 
most important one, and the one that should 
be regarded as such by all thinking people, 
is the circle of Home and Friends. 

45 


V 


46 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


These thoughts are not put forth from any 
sense of moral or intellectual superiority — not 
a bit of it. They are sent forth from the 
depths of my experience and knowledge of 
things pertaining to everyday life. 

In the present snail-like movement of in- 
tellectual and humane growth termed civiliza- 
tion, no matter to what degree one may have 
been developed, or how fraternal or loving a 
nature one may possess, he or she cannot 
make and hold a close personal associate of 
everyone by chance we meet or come in con- 
tact with in the large circle of human life. 

There are men of different minds and men 
of different molds. There are men of differ- 
ent grades and men of different ways. There 
are men who are strong and men who are 
weak. 

We may love all of humankind and be a 
helper of the human race. 

However, harmony must prevail, especially 
in the home — for the home should be the one 
sacred spot of human living. Its portals must 
be guarded with devout care, not simply to 
protect it from questionable characters, but 
for the continuous development of love, peace, 
and good cheer within the circle — which is 
man’s castle — his all in all. 

We must cultivate honesty and helpfulness 
combined with intellectual pleasure in our 
associations with those whom we designate 
as friends. 

It is an impossibility for a thoughtful man 
to make an intimate associate of a man who 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 47 

never thinks, and a man of reasoning power 
cannot enjoy the close and continuous asso- 
ciation of a bigot. Such a combination would 
mean destruction to the developed man and 
never-ceasing madness to the undeveloped 
man. 

Gratitude cannot live and dwell with in- 
gratitude in peace and thankfulness, neither 
can an honest man have and hold for a boon 
companion a dishonest one; at any rate, such 
an influence and association would not be con- 
ducive of peace and progress to the former or 
pleasing and congenial to the mind of the 
latter. 

Only in men and women whose deepest and 
most hidden experiences have something in 
common with our own can we find a friend. 
It matters not how diversified our lives 
may be, a real friendship is — “ Two souls 
with but a single thought.” 

The sunny soul of an optimist would be 
taxed to the limit in attempting to live in 
continual association with the blue mind of 
the pessimist. 

There is good in all men, but this fact does 
not mean that peace and harmony can be 
found and lived in close association with all 
kinds of men. To have and to enjoy har- 
mony in friendship there must necessarily 
exist in heart and mind a blending of thoughts 
and a spirit of unselfishness. 

Men of pure friendship live on higher 
planes of life than does the “ animal ” man 
who simply eats, drinks, appeases his pas- 


48 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

sions, and dies, unknown even to himself. 
There are but few pure affinities of mind and 
soul in men. It is much safer to be sure of 
one’s self than any number of others. We 
may have many friendly acquaintances, but 
we can have but few real friends — for these 
are rare and precious gems of the soul. 
Friendship is of slow growth, delicate in cul- 
tivation and wonderfully cheering as it de- 
velops and unfolds in a genuine friend. 

To all men be courteous and to all be 
polite, holding in your heart good will and 
showing a manly confidence in all; but to be 
safe, and if you wish to live in the sunshine 
of harmonious friendship, be sure not to 
take, receive, or place men in the inner 
circle of heart and home until you know their 
grade of development — not until you know 
that they are growing toward the light in 
honor and in thinking power. Friendship 
and confidence are plants of slow growth. 

Friendship is akin to love, it is seldom 
found for the looking, never is known except 
by experience of the years; it does not exist 
at first sight, it comes only as a matter of 
growth, and again if the growth is forced it 
will not be of the nature of the oak, but on 
the contrary it is very apt to be of mush- 
room stability, the cactus and the nettle type. 

In the big circle of the world, wherever 
you may go, treat all men kindly and well, 
clasp their hands in heartiness and in strict 
integrity. 

In this big circle you may find for the next 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


49 

circle many friendly acquaintances, and from 
these a natural selection will follow of the 
choice spirits of earth for the inner and re- 
fined circle of home and loved ones. 

Remember if you should gather but one 
real friend into life’s fold — into your heart of 
hearts — you have done well and have gar- 
nered a blessing of higher worth than stacks 
of glittering gold, pomp, or show. 

Should you, in the long run of years, find 
yourself blessed with more than one friend, — 
say, two, three, or four, — surely Nature’s 
choicest gift has blessed your life and you 
should be satisfied. 

These described conditions with a wife in 
harmony with yourself, the husband of the 
home having conquered one loving and faithful 
heart, a wife, each absolutely true and indis- 
solubly one, with hearts linked together by the 
golden ties of children playing about their 
knees at the cottage door, all living and grow- 
ing up in purity and honor,— I tell you, brother 
man, the world then is yours — the Man is 
King! the Woman is Queen! both occupy- 
ing the same Throne crowned and bedecked 
with garlands of love. 

To crave or seek for more than this at 
life’s banquet would be the height of folly 
and the depth of unwise selfishness. 


50 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT 


Every man is a volume if you know how to read him. 

— Channing. 

Through a lack of knowledge or a lack of 
education in the science of reading the souls 
of men through the physical form, we are 
very apt to commit serious blunders in choos- 
ing our associates either for the inner or for 
the outer circles as described. It is as im- 
portant and necessary on life’s highway to 
correct an error as it is to cling to a virtue. 
If, therefore, after a thorough test in ex- 
perience or trials you become convinced that 
a mistake has been made in the selection of 
an intimate acquaintance or friend, and that 
neither pleasure nor intellectual progress can 
grow out of the association, then according 
to grade and development in the higher self 
and friendliness, not in anger, not in haste, 
not in ill-feeling, but with matured judgment 
mentally, put said associate back into the 
circle where he or she belongs and thus free 
your mind of the obstructive incumbrance. 

The one who has been supposedly a worthy 
friend may perchance make a pleasant ac- 
quaintance; then in your mind remove him 
from the refined circle and place him in the 
next circle, where he may fit. 

If an acquaintance is absolutely detrimental 
to peace and progress, then turn such a one 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


5i 


back into the world circle, and thus may we 
rid ourselves of incumbrances and have 
friendships and acquaintances that will be 
harmonious and a joy forever. 

Through evolution men are growing and 
unfolding. The right of choosing a friend 
is a natural and a personal privilege, and yet, 
after all, a friend is really not of one’s own 
getting or choosing, a friend is Heaven sent, 
or at least we meet by chance the soul that 
chimes with our own, and from the beginning 
it grows and develops in beauty and in grace. 

Friendship is an incomplete soul finding its 
completion in a friend. 

I quote from a little book of Prose and 
Verse by Claudia Boddie Money: — 

“ To the majority of men we can never 
show that portion of ourselves which is deep- 
est and truest and most really ours. We in- 
stinctively feel there is a want of sympathiz- 
ing receptiveness in them that would hinder 
their seeing the pearl laid at their feet and in 
many cases, alas ! a brutal insensitiveness 
which would only prompt them to crush it 
beneath their heel. But Nature is merciful. 
She cannot suffer any child of hers to dwell 
in solitary places forever; and sometime in 
the course of a life, not ofteij, but I dare to 
believe always once, we recognize by a di- 
vinity-bestowed intuition the much longed 
for, the unspeakably, ineffably precious kin- 
dred spirit. This intuitive recognition is one 
of the mysteries of humanity. It is the true 


52 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


love at first sight, when eye does not simply 
look into eye, but soul gazes into soul.” 


Friendship is the rarest and sweetest flower 
that grows in the garden of life; its soil is 
the human heart, it is planted by honest 
thought, nurtured by tears of sympathy, and 
kept alive by the breath of good wishes. 


As to its genuineness watch these tests: — 
a chattering tongue, a wind of adversity, a 
little bit of good fortune, and a breath of 
slander. If it is touched by these acids with- 
out tarnishing it is pure gold. 


In your friendships be true and loyal. Dis- 
loyalty is the “ unkindest cut of all ” ; it 
means death. Friendship is reciprocal. You 
cannot have a friend unless you are worthy 
of every confidence. 


Fortunes are not generally made in a day; 
neither is a friendship. A real genuine friend 
is a fortune of higher value than a golden 
god. 


Making a friend is one of the most serious 
things in life. 


A friend appreciates the chance of coming 
in when the crowd has gone out. 


Friendship hides a fault, commends a vir- 
tue, and loves you anyhow. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


53 

Our life current is ebbing away when a 
friend dies. 


Friendship is a golden link in the chain of 
life, holding us together in affection when 
separated one from the other. 


When the sun of prosperity goes down, a 
real friend clings the closer, and in loving 
kindness cheers the faint and weary. 


If a tale-bearer pours poisonous stories into 
your ear about a friend (if you take any notice 
at all), play fair, give your friend, the slan- 
dered one, an equal chance for a hearing with 
the tattler or slanderer. 

Never judge harshly nor slight a man 
through the tongue of a chatterer. If you 
do you are on the same plane of life as the 
chatterer. Men talk; monkeys chatter. The 
world needs men. 


Friendship is the music of the world. It 
exerts its influence on humanity and blends 
the good, the true, and the beautiful into 
perfect harmony, like the chords of a gigan- 
tic orchestra. 


Friendship is light amid the darkness; it 
is loyal even unto death. 

We must be true in our friendship, that its 
beauty and its fragrance may permeate the 


54 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

whole atmosphere throughout the forest of 
life. 


It is the spirit of friendship in man that 
gives him tone and character. 


A FRIEND 

Have you ever had a friend that loved you 
for yourself, loyal and sincere, would stand 
by you in cloud, in sunshine, in wrong, 
in right? 

Have you ever had a friend that would de- 
fend your name, in a crowd, and you 
absent? 

Have you ever had a friend that when you 
were being complimented would fall in 
line and then not qualify with, “ but ” — 
“ but ”? 

Have you ever had a friend that would come 
in and aid and cheer, when everybody had 
gone out, and the joy of the doing was a 
rich reward? 

Have you ever had a friend that never al- 
lowed “ people’s chatter ” — or his own 
imagination — to mar a friendly equilibrium? 

Have you ever had a friend that by chance 
had gotten rich, or clothed in “ petty au- 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 55 

thority,” and then was just the same good 
friend? 

Have you ever had a friend that would ap- 
plaud you while climbing the hill of pros- 
perity — and he at the foot? 

Have you ever had a friend whose heart- 
strings were entwined with yours, bound 
round with the silken cords of esteem and 
confidence, and from the depths there 
flowed a perpetual fountain of fraternal 
love, carrying good cheer, blending as it 
flowed on with desire and action to aug- 
ment the sum of happiness and well-being? 

“ Yes, sir; I have had such a friend! ” Then, 
sir, you have been rich. 

What’s that! You say, you have such a one 
at the present time? 

“ I have.” 

Then you are now a rich man; ; 

You have 


A FRIEND 


56 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


THE TEMPLE OF INDWELLING GOD 

LINES TO PURSUE 

As we surpass our fathers’ skill, 

Our sons will shame our own; 

A thousand things are hidden still, 

And not a hundred known. 

And had some prophet spoken true 
Of all we shall achieve, 

The wonders were so widely new, 

That no man would believe. 

Meanwhile, my brothers, work and wield 
The forces of to-day, 

And plow the present like a field, 

And garner all you may. 

— Tennyson. 

Many people ask, What line of study shall 
I pursue to attain the strength and will- 
power necessary to growth into such a life 
as herein taught? Lessons only in a general 
way can be given in a brief space, and then, 
after all is said and done, each individual is 
the architect and builder of a life, master of 
his or her own destiny. Remember the inner 
consciousness of man must not be sold nor 
bartered. This is the very soul of life, — the 
higher and better part of self, and it grows 
in beauty and in glory as we develop in 
knowledge and in goodness. If you cast 
away the divine right of liberty of thought 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


57 

and its expression, you become as nothing, — 
the light has failed. 

To begin with, thought power must be de- 
veloped and brought into use; an idiot does 
not know his way about. When thought 
forces have reached the height of a govern- 
ing-power, then will you study how to take 
care of your physical self. 

The first line of action necessary toward 
building a splendid physical and mental man- 
hood is for man to have the desire, then to 
resolve earnestly to do his own climbing and 
his own thinking on the ladder of life. The 
rungs are named honesty, enthusiasm, self- 
denial, and industry. Then, pertaining to 
the physical, he must know how to keep the 
body pure and clean within and without; 
next, to learn how to breathe. Nature gives 
us breath, which is life; correct, deep breath- 
ing means purer, healthier thought, enriching 
the tones of the voice, charming the listener 
and soothing one’s own disposition, lifting 
humankind into higher realms of thought and 
purpose. 

Nature gives us functions whereby we may 
use that breath. Nature takes the breath 
away, and life ceases; death is the result. 
Hence, to know how to breathe correctly is 
an absolute necessity for the building up of 
a strong, healthy body, which is the real 
foundation of a healthy manhood. 

Next, one must learn how to exercise every 
function of the body by work and simple 
common-sense rules of physical culture. 


58 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

If you have habits that are detrimental to 
your health and morals, you must rid your- 
self of them at once, or you will simply waste 
your time, by building a house, a life, upon 
the sand, which will be washed away by 
habits or waves of dissipation. 

There is only one way in dealing with a 
lower self or with a habit, and that is — make 
the will the master over desires and cravings. 


“ The human will, that force unseen 
The offspring of a deathless soul, 
Can hew a way to any goal, 
Though walls of granite intervene.” 


Individual salvation can be attained only 
by the use of will-power. If man would be 
saved he must save himself. By this law of 
the will any man may change low, base de- 
sires and cravings for high, pure, and clean 
ones, and bring himself up to a high standard 
of character. Without the will there can 
be no progress, no improvement. Increasing 
degradation is the inevitable result. At times 
the struggle may mean wretchedness and in- 
tense suffering, but this knowledge will com- 
fort us — that our natural weaknesses will ere- 
long yield to our will. Habits are formed 
and desires increased by continued repetition. 
Stop doing a thing, and in time the desire to 
do it vanishes. Respond to your base desires, 
and you grow coarser every day and become 
“ an animal.” Resist base desires and culti- 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


59 

vate intellectual, spiritual refinement, and you 
become a man. 

It has taken millions of years to produce 
a man in the higher sense of the term, and 
in order that man might exist, millions of 
forms of life, lower in quality, have been pro- 
duced. Slowly but surely man is coming 
into light. The law of evolution is the law 
of thinking. 

We must have a race of kindly, fraternal 
men before there can be a reign of peace, of 
justice, and of love. 

Many men may laugh at the toil and effort 
of the few in developing or civilizing human- 
kind by the power of thought, love, and kind- 
ness; but these, combined with reason, surely 
are the liberators from the errors of igno- 
rance and superstition, and through these 
avenues only can we find the way out of 
bondage and chaotic life into the free air and 
into the haven of joyous peace. 

Without refinement and sentiment there 
would be no love, no home, no courtesy, no 
honor, no patriotism. Our life and our coun- 
try would be little else than an empty shell 
of “ animal life/’ 

Laws may protect or restrain to some ex- 
tent ’ the killing with cannon and gun, but 
there are worse things, worse weapons and 
instruments, more deadly to human happiness 
and well-being than martial music, guns, and 
war. 

It is but a piece of foolishness to proclaim 
peace in a world of men who have not yet 


6o 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


climbed far enough up the intellectual heights 
of reasoning, thought power, to even discern 
with mental eye right from wrong in the 
common things of ordinary everyday life, and 
where each one is seeking to devour or to be 
assured of an advantage over the other. 

We cannot have peace on earth until hu- 
mankind are humanized; — not until we have 
a fraternal world, with an honest distribution 
of life’s bounties, — a peace-living and a peace- 
loving people: a strong nation of real men 
who will be men because they know it is right 
to be men, natural to be thoughtful and re- 
flective, and who combine with honor manly 
courage to do and to dare all things for the 
building of an intellectual manhood. 

Our public halls, our churches, our sky- 
scrapers, all of them, would be valueless, if 
not for the mighty foundations upon which 
they rest. These foundations are laid deep 
in the ground, in the dark and out of sight; 
but these are the main supports, props, and 
pillars of the structure. 

What these granite foundations are to the 
great buildings, so is honest, high thought 
to the individual. Character is what you 
think; not what you think you think. Char- 
acter is really what you are. 

“ Men of character are the conscience of the 
society to which they belong.” — Emerson. 

Reputation grows and spreads on what 
“they” don’t know. Character is built up 
by slow degrees on what “ we ” do know. 
Every man is sole proprietor of his character, 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 61 

his real self. Reputation is on the differing 
lips of the crowd, and is never safe nor per- 
manent until one is dead. We must keep a 
strict watch on our character. 

If one would grow into a sterling man- 
hood or womanhood, he or she must learn 
to control the nerves and be master of one’s 
self. Anger must be entirely obliterated from 
the make-up of man or woman. One should 
never boast of having a quick temper. Boast- 
ing of a quick or bad temper simply tells the 
story that spasmodically one goes insane in 
double-quick time and erelong will have to 
be cared for by the State. 

“ There is not in nature 
A thing that makes a man 

so deformed, so beastly, 

As doth intemperate anger.” 

Never allow yourself to hate anybody or 
anything and beware of vile suggestion. The 
person who hates is malevolent — stunts him- 
self — stops his growth. He cannot advance; 
hatred, malice, and jealousy contract and 
harden the human heart, and man is fooling 
himself by yielding to such foolish things. 
Envy, anger, and meanness are as strong 
links in a chain of steel binding man to the 
rocks of bigotry, prejudice, and low life. 

Stop sowing weeds, and you cease reaping 
weeds. 


62 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


TEMPLE OF THE SOUL 

The human body is the temple of the soul. 
It must be pure and refined. To keep this 
body strong and perfect should be the aim 
and object of every man and woman. It 
must not be defiled either from without or 
from within. 

“ Why come temptations but for man to meet, 

And master and make crouch beneath his 
feet, 

And so be pedestaled in triumph ! ” 

In the play of “ Hamlet,” Shakespeare puts 
these words into the mouth of Polonius when 
giving advice to his son: 

“ This above all, to thine own self be true, 

And it must follow, as the night the day, 

Thou canst not then be false to any man.” 

The meaning of the phrase “ To thine own 
self be true ” is absolutely devoid of low self- 
ishness. We say, “ This is my hand, my coat, 
my tie, my face, etc.” We claim them in the 
possessive case. Then what is the meaning 
of “ my ” or “ I ”? It means the ego, the cos- 
mos, the soul, the angel voice, the God-life 
within. “To thine own self be true ” means 
that we will guard well our actions. It 
means a life of truth, of honesty, of virtue, of 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 63 

kindness, of helpfulness toward all mankind. 
It means that we shall not destroy our bodies 
by dissipation, ugliness, and depravity. It 
means that we shall help and lift rather than 
blame and hurt for the mistakes, faults, and 
frailties growing out of poor human weak- 
nesses. 

The man who does not study, think, and 
reason surrenders by his slothfulness his 
birthright; he chooses darkness instead of 
light, dross for gold. He exchanges the 
divinity within for deviltry without, and ere- 
long he finds himself floundering about in the 
swamps and the foul morass of wrong living 
and wrong doing, and thus he becomes a 
failure, a thing in human shape to be laughed 
at and despised, — a rotten hulk, spoiled and 
ruined, inhabited only by bats and bugs on 
the filthy banks of stagnant pools. 

A man is not really a man until he has con- 
trol of his appetites. We may enjoy our 
food and the good things at life’s banquet 
table, but for one person to eat two dinners 
in the same hour, and to drink when not 
thirsty, is not conducive to health, to morals, 
or to happiness. We must be temperate in 
all things. Use everything, abuse nothing; 
eat to live, not live to eat. When we have 
attained this height of development in mind 
and strength, we may then begin to build in- 
tellectual mansions, story upon story, until 
one’s head is lifted above the mists and fogs 
of ordinary human life. Then may we stand 
as a beacon light to our fellowmen. 


64 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

“ ’Tis fearful building upon any sin, 

One mischief entered brings another in. 
The second draws a third, the third pulls 
more, 

Till they for all the rest set ope the door. 
Then habit takes away the judging sense, 
And to offend we think it no offense.” 


CULTIVATION 

Our first great difficulty is to fasten our 
interest upon that which is invisible, to be- 
hold in our imagination the sublimity of our 
work completed. He who would seek the 
gates of gold leading into real human life 
must first learn to imagine and contemplate. 
The poet, dreaming of his creation, looks upon 
the unseen yet beautiful, and listens to the 
delightful cadence of the soul of things, which 
to the world is unseen and unheard. 

The sculptor who chisels the insensible 
rock, first raises the veil of his subjective 
mind and beholds in all its splendor his beau- 
tiful creation ere his work begins. It’s the 
things we see mentally that lead us on to 
higher living here, now and always. Our 
dreams are shadows of what we may become. 
One must keep an open mind and never mind 
who laughs. 

The reader or the word-picture painter 
must first comprehend his poem, his subject. 
The fullness of the picture and each char- 
acter must be indelibly imprinted on his or her 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


65 

mind; in other words, he must see what he 
would create through the mirror of his imagi- 
nation. 

Man’s success depends wholly upon the 
firmness and the determination with which he 
attaches himself to his purpose, though that 
purpose to some extent be unseen. The poet, 
the sculptor, the reader, the actor, the 
preacher who comprehends the divinity of his 
work, will ever see to it that they are endowed 
with that purity of soul and body which alone 
marks true greatness. 

The training of man’s moral nature is an 
important factor in producing a healthy mind. 
Socrates, the great Pagan, gave the key to 
the higher mode of instruction : — “ Know thy- 
self.” Again he said, — “ ’Tis only the wise 
man who can be brave, just, and temperate. 
Vice of every kind is ignorance.” 

Christ said, “ What shall it profit a man 
if he gain the whole world and lose his own 
soul?” He meant that being true to truth 
was the only way of knowing the things 
worth knowing and enjoying the kingdom 
that is within you. Jesus knew it, and we 
all of us ought to know it, that physically 

“ Although he craves it from his birth 
And wishes it through life’s brief span, 
Man never, never gets the earth. 

It is the earth that gets the man.” 

In this age of greed and clamor, it is 
claimed by many that “ Every man has his 
price,” meaning that the honor of man may 


66 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


be bartered and sold as in trading for a horse 
or for a bale of hay. The man who lives 
this kind of a life and claims it as a universal 
truth, looks through smeared glasses. His 
mind is on “ a mess of pottage.” He sees no 
further than something to eat, his goal is a 
golden god, his pleasure a bowl of mush and 
some meat. 

He has not figured on the higher values of 
life. He never tries to lift his mind above 
the material things of earth. This man, in 
his shortsightedness and stupidity, exchanges 
higher values for lower values, — he eats, 
sleeps and dies, unknown even to himself, — 
leaving the question of the Christ unan- 
swered, — “What shall it profit a man?” etc. 

On the walls of a public library in Preston, 
England, the following sentiment is printed 
in large bold letters: — 

“ On earth there is nothing great but man.” 

On another wall, 

“In man there is nothing great but mind.” 

Let us add, 

“ In mind there is nothing worth while but 
development.” 

If man would make anything of himself, a 
brief space of time must be given every day 
to the cultivation of thought-power, backed 
by sober reason poised and balanced in the 
scales of justice. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 67 

All the greatest, purest, and worthiest 
things in life are beyond market value. The 
gifts of God are not for sale at bargain 
counters. 

Man must go into his chamber alone and 
meditate, concentrate, commune with his 
higher and nobler self. Study and read, if 
only for a little while, or if only a few lines, 
commune with master minds, as well as hum- 
bler poets. Digest what is read, think, be in 
earnest, cultivate enthusiasm, commit the ex- 
pressions of great thoughts to memory, make 
the thought a part of self and thus build 
mansions of the soul. 

It is not an absolute necessity to go to col- 
lege to become educated. Information, — 
Education, is the important thing. It mat- 
ters not where one gets it. 

The first requisite for manhood is to have 
brains. Thousands of people are not what 
might be termed educated, but they have 
brains and are safe. It is better to be a 
thinking man than a non-thinking, educated 
ass. Education should mean obedience to 
natural law — finding the truths of the uni- 
verse. When this scholarship is attained, 
man will recognize this absolute truth, — that 
to be in harmony with the Infinite power 
from which all good and all blessings come, 
he must be true to the divinity within himself 
— to law and order with every step in every 
pathway in which he moves and lives and 
has his being — illumined by the light of a 
bright intellectuality which in itself is a pow- 


68 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


erful chain sending forth and uplifting and 
commanding an influence wherever it ap- 
pears, if it be in the public hall, in the home 
of the rich, or in the hovel of the poor. 

I fully appreciate college professors be- 
cause they are good instructors, but it is well 
to avoid wasting time on dead languages or 
on study of things which can be of very little 
service to you, or at least to the average 
citizen. 

It is not necessary to be labeled to be an 
honest man, a religious man, or an educated 
man. 

It is not a necessity to have a medal to be 
a hero. There are more silent heroes that 
are worth while than noisy ones. 

It is not a necessity to be a young man to 
be a student. To use your brain and be a 
thinker is the thing. It’s a pity that boys 
are not put to work and men to school. 

The best days of man — I mean thinkers — 
are after or from forty-five years old. Don’t 
be hornswoggled into any contrary thought 
by waves of public clamor, by so-called scien- 
tists, or know-it-alls. 

Robert Browning’s words may to some ex- 
tent overstate the case, but nevertheless they 
suggest the truth: 

“ The best is yet to be, 

Grow old along with me, . . . 

The last of life, for which the first was 
made.” 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 69 

The person who is in possession of a bright 
intellect and has lived a clean life appreciates 
the thoughtful difference between youth and 
age. 

If a person does not grow happier well into 
life it is because he has not known how to 
live. 

Age is not always a question of silvered 
hair and furrowed brow. The Census Taker 
in Heaven will never inquire about the date 
of your birth, nor care for the record in the 
old family Bible. 

Old age is a very different thing in differ- 
ent natures. One man seems to grow more 
and more selfish as he grows older, and in 
another the slow fires of Time seem only to 
consume the little lingering selfishness within 
him, and let the light of goodness shine out 
more and more as the body grows thin and 
the soul nears the approaches to its immor- 
tality. Keep your heart young. Let not the 
fair flower that grew there perish for the 
want of a little watering. — Let the fragrance 
of pure love grow the mellower with each 
passing day. And the way to keep young is 
to grow out of self and live for others. 

The young man is very apt to run and 
shout and waste his life in blindness. The 
old man may walk and talk and see the beau- 
ties of life and be a useful blessing to all 
about him. 

Quiet, manly meditation is every bit as 
joyous as is noisy Rah! rah! rah! 

Intelligence is the foundation upon which 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


70 

we rear character. It is ours to develop and 
cultivate, and it will ripen into a glorious 
splendor if lived for and will last through all 
eternity. If you would add unto yourself 
wit, wisdom, and those fair flowers of an 
existence that is worth while, dedicate your 
life’s efforts, your intelligence to the accom- 
plishment of your loftiest ideals. 

It is the force of holy thought and feeling, 
of love, of mercy, in which we act, and this 
spirit must be nurtured and encouraged 
through and by every source that is available 
if we would save ourselves, our country, and 
our civilization. 


TRUTH 

First of all, man must be absolutely truth- 
ful. It is only the foolish or undeveloped 
who are untrue to truth: 

“ O, what a tangled web we weave 
When first we practice to deceive ! ” 


Truthfulness is greatness; there can be no 
greatness without a strict adherence to truth- 
fulness. 

True manhood is an intellectual, moral, and 
spiritual unfoldment of truth. 

Truth is the basis of all civilized life; noth- 
ing can need a lie. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


7i 

To know the truth, means climbing the 
mountains of honor and integrity to a nobler 
manhood. 

Truth can be found only by the torch of 
reason carried aloft by clean hands, clear 
minds, and honest hearts. 

Truth is the divine source from which come 
love of home, love of country, and love of 
God. 

A truthful man is kind, generous, and 
thoughtful. 

Truth means loyalty to man’s higher and 
nobler self. 

Truth all across the ages has been the star 
that has given light to the feet and courage 
to the hearts of the bravest and the best of 
God’s children. 

If man would grow he must be truthful 
though wrong be on the throne and the gates 
of an imaginary hell are pointed out to him 
by stupid man as the punishment to fit the 
crime. 

Truth is a constant revelation and a con- 
tinuous inspiration to reach an ideal. 

Truth leads us on through bog and fen of 
ignorant life into the sunlit fields of eternal 
day. 

Truth makes us free and freedom makes us 
men. 

Truth never builds a stationary tent; one 
must journey on and on to keep abreast of 
truth. Only the man who is true can see and 
appreciate divine truth. 

Truth is light; the absence of it is darkness. 


72 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

Truth is the compass of the soul pointing 
the way from the cave and jungle to the 
glorified home of father, mother, and child. 

The truth of to-day may be the imperfec- 
tion of to-morrow, nevertheless it is truth. 
We must be true to truth on our journey from 
the fear of a God of hate to the adoration of 
a God of love. 

Truth banishes the ignorance of the tribal 
age, it kills prejudice, it destroys the animal 
spirit of revenge, and cheers the heart with 
fraternal love. 

Truth is the staff of a pure, refined con- 
science reliable under any and all trials or 
conditions, whether they be the fagot, the 
thumbscrew, the cross, or the modern mode 
of ostracism. 

Tell the Truth and Hell Vanishes. 

Each individual is responsible to his own 
conscience — the monitor of God — to know 
the truth and live by it. 

The tangled web in human life to-day is 
ignorance — lack of truth, fear to express the 
truth, catering to fads and fancies rather than 
being true to our better selves. We sell out 
heaven for smiles of the devil through fear of 
the world’s frowns. 

The devil is he who is a stumbling-block 
to truth, who will not accord the same privi- 
leges in life to his fellows that he exercises 
and claims for himself. 

Truth is growing in all quarters of the 
universe, and honesty is the only possible line 
between two points. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 73 

When truth controls the hearts of men 
justice will rule the world — God is truth. 

“ Let cowards fear to trust the truth, 

And paddle round the shore; 

Hoist thy sails, give truth the helm, 
Then let the billows roar.” 


HONOR AND HONESTY 

The most essential principle of all human 
life is honor, to which all virtues cling. 
Without honor, justice is dethroned, man is 
simply animal, and his fellow-beings his prey. 
We often hear it said, — “ Honesty is the best 
policy.” Honesty is not a policy, but a part 
of Nature’s great universal law. 

The sun is honest. It rises in the east and 
sets in the west, and at the proper time. The 
earth is honest. It revolves daily on its axis, 
and with equal precision does it take its 
yearly trip around the sun. 

The seasons are honest. They succeed 
each other in the same form forever. The 
flowers and plants are honest. They come 
to visit us in the proper season. Even the 
elements are honest. They warn us, with 
freezing cold or scorching heat, or threaten- 
ing sky, to take proper precautions against 
their extremes. 

Man, to be natural, to be healthy, to be 
happy, should be honest. If he is not, he 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


74 

must pay the penalty for breaking the law 
of the universe. 

Honor and integrity must be kept as pure 
and sacred in business and social relationship 
as in the family life. 

“ He who cheats his fellowman 
Too dearly buys his pelf : 

Who tramples on another’s rights 
But doubly cheats himself.” 

But suppose we should adopt a policy of 
being honest in our everyday life, irrespective 
of conscience, or of the real and higher 
thought, with the satisfaction that a feeling 
of honesty invariably brings, I believe even 
then the policy of honesty would be a winner. 

True, one casts off a whole lot in being 
honest, but what does he cast off? Is it any- 
thing of real value, is it anything but outside 
decorations or, in itself, anything but foolish- 
ness? When a man gets rich, the supposition 
is that the accumulation of gold and the attain- 
ment of so-called pleasure are the “ all in 
all,” but are they? I don’t believe that they 
are “ all in all.” To my mind no man can 
become very rich, if he be keenly honest, 
because from the honest fundamental prin- 
ciple of life this world is neither yours nor 
mine — it is ours. But we’ll let that subject 
rest, for mankind are not yet fraternalized — 
humanized — and we should not be under- 
stood, and my purpose is to humanize — fra- 
ternalize. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 75 

The rich man, of course, rides, while the 
poor man walks. 

The rich man may eat two dinners and 
drink liquors and champagne and get real 
pain. The poor man can eat but one dinner, 
drink water, tea, or coffee, and have no pain. 
The rich man can go “ into society ” and 
shake hands like a kangaroo. The poor man 
can meet a few people and shake hands like 
a man. 

The rich man can have a following of 
friends; the poor man has no following, — his 
friends walk beside him. 

The rich man may never know who is his 
friend; the poor man is positive of one or 
two, and gets the proof. 

The rich man is an object to be looked at 
and pointed out as the man with the “ rocks 
the poor man, if pointed out at all, is as the 
man with the heart. 

Personally I have seen but little gained 
by the rich, — in simply being rich; and to 
get rich dishonestly, — why, then, one sells 
his birthright for a mess of pottage. As a 
rule, in being honest you may have a good 
dinner with wholesome drink, you may have 
manly society and the earnest handclasp of 
a toiler, and when alone you are always sure 
of good company. I really believe that, if 
we lived simply by rule, Honesty would be 
the best Policy. 

If a man is dishonest, others not being 
cognizant of it, or if by others forgiven, 
makes no difference. To forgive one’s self 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


76 

is the rub; and irrespective of the modern 
idea, I want to tell you that the wrong is in 
the doing rather than in the being found out. 

Conscience is God’s monitor — “ an all-see- 
ing eye and this monitor is with us always 
and everywhere. 

Men are false because they do not listen to 
the angel voice of their better selves. 

The heavens open to every man who keeps 
the key of intellectual power and purity. If 
human life is not worth being honest, it is 
not worth anything. 


GABBING 

Shakespeare said, “ Take heed, be wary 
how you place your words.” 

Scott truly wrote: 

“ And many a word at random spoken, 

May soothe, or wound, a heart that’s 
broken.” 

If you cannot speak well of a person, keep 
your lips sealed. 

A tattle-talebearer is the devil-fish in life’s 
ocean, or the monkey of the universe, and is 
a more dangerous thing than is a drawn 
sword in the hands of an idiot. Man is not 
worthy the name until he is developed high 
enough in character and intelligence to live 
for a principle, to be a man; until he has the 
principle of honor, and, combined with what- 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 77 

ever gifts or talents he possesses, a definite 
purpose and a purity of life. 

It is ignorance that makes men sin, and 
to-day there is no excuse for ignorance, either 
in book-learning or in mental development. 
Every man who is a seeker after knowledge 
can find it. 

Idle gossip by chattering people is the 
cause of the greater part of the troubles in 
the world, and man is not honorable until he 
lives above the mists and fogs of petty jeal- 
ousies and small, hurtful talk. 

An honorable man will never deprive his 
neighbor of his just dues. He never decides 
nor acts through the spirit of the mob or 
through public clamor. Honor banishes from 
man snobbishness, and real men simply smile 
at the snob. Another distinctive phase of 
dishonesty in human life is jealousy. This 
relic of primitive life is a blight and a curse 
to the nation, to society, to the individual, 
and to the home. This devilish thing creates 
slander, wrecks the home, wounds the trust- 
ing heart, and turns the ivy of friendship into 
the lavender of distrust. 

America must cultivate a new national 
spirit or it will be a land of chatterers. To- 
day, in many places, it consists of 40 per 
cent, sleep and 60 per cent, scandal, — “ The 
Press.” In shop, in factory, in office, in so- 
cieties, and in all the various departments of 
government, this nagging and peace-disturb- 
ing thing — chatter — keeps human life in a 
continuous turmoil. “ Mother Grundy ” 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


78 

clutches at a breath or word of scandal or 
“ baby talk ” as eagerly as a buzzard its prey, 
and then vomits her poisoned nastiness into 
the living waters of life. 

A good name, popularity, and happiness 
may be stolen as readily as any article of 
property. Shakespeare’s words teach us that 
the theft of a good name is a baser deed than 
the theft of money: 

“ Who steals my purse steals trash ; ’tis some- 
thing, nothing; 

’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to 
thousands ; 

But he that filches from me my good name 
Robs me of that which not enriches him, 
And makes me poor indeed.” 

The virtue of honesty shines brightest in 
those who are most zealous in preserving and 
honoring their own and their neighbors’ good 
name. 

The influence cast by gossiping, tattle-tale 
busybodies is beyond mental calculation, in 
its destruction of happiness and its retarding 
of human progress. Many well-meaning 
women, wives, cursed with the blight of chat- 
ter, have brought ruin to their husbands, their 
homes, and themselves, by gossip, by con- 
tinually pouring into the ears of their loved 
ones silly, petty stories which are both irri- 
tating and disturbing. She tells what “ Mrs. 
Grundy ” said, and what Mr. So-and-So told 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


79 


Mr. Grundy about him, her husband. Thus 
friendly confidences are weakened, mental 
disorders are developed, the husband becomes 
a suspicious, grouchy wreck, his destination 
being a sanitarium, and next the grave. 


(6 


Boys flying kites haul in their white-winged 
birds; 

You can’t do that when you are flying 
words. 

Careful with fire is good advice, we know; 

Careful with words is ten times doubly so. 

Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes fall 
back dead, 

But God himself can’t kill them when 
they’re said.” 


Honor is life’s most important ruling — it 
means to give and receive justice in our deal- 
ings with our fellowmen. It admonishes us 
to be faithful to every trust. It whispers a 
warning — that a broken promise is the mean- 
est and most aggravating of lies. Manly 
honor not only says — be honest in keeping 
your promises and in paying and receiving 
dollars and cents, but it goes farther and 
commands us to be honest in spirit, in 
thought, and in action. Honor proclaims, 
“ Thou shalt not bear false witness against 
thy neighbor.” Honor teaches that man 
shall live and dwell in the broad sunlit fields 
of purity and intellectuality — life’s pathway, 
ever illumined with the light of sober reason. 


8o 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


Honor: — all men are fond of this divine 
appeal. Many use it for such vain and tri- 
fling things as wealth, ambition, and show. 
It should be used only for those higher at- 
tributes in man, when all that is paltering, 
wicked, and foolish shall have been stripped 
away. It is the spotless shield protecting 
a spotless character. It means justice to all 
mankind. 


CHARITY 

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and 
have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling 
cymbal. 

— Corinthians xiii. 


Charity is the redeeming angel of this 
world. 

Charity is as constant as a mother’s love. 

Charity kneels upon the loftiest step of 
the throne eternal and her voice is sweeter 
than the harmony of heaven’s minstrelsy. 
She pleads for the outcast, the unfortunate, 
and the distressed anywhere and everywhere. 

Charity lifts humanity up from barbarism 
into the realms of light, making us worthy 
the name of man. In our hurry and flurry 
in everyday life by common usage, our ideas 
are apt to became dwarfed and narrowed and 
this sweet Charity is perverted to simply 
mean the giving of alms. Therefore it is well 
for us to pause awhile, listen to the music of 
the soul, and school ourselves in thought and 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


81 


reflection, that we lose not the true inward- 
ness, the higher, the nobler conception of 
charity. 

One of the purest and most beautiful truths 
of life was spoken when ’twas said, “ Charity 
begins at home.” The blessed abode where 
the man is the oak, the woman the vine, the 
children flowers, dwelling together in love 
and purity, the family circle of life illumined 
by the light of reason, — this is the real Home, 
the birthplace of sweet charity. 

To give alms to the poor and unfortunate 
is a small part of the sublime mission of 
charity. Care must be used in the giving of 
alms, or by chance we “ may dull the edge of 
husbandry,” and injure the lives of those we 
in our hearts would befriend. 

Charity is a Divine Attribute. It must be 
cultivated in the depths of the human soul 
and its light and goodness will shine forth 
in our faces and infuse itself in our hand- 
clasps, reflecting its cheer in our every action. 

Charity lightens the burdens of ourselves 
and of those we meet on life’s rough and un- 
even highway. 

Charity is as boundless as the desires and 
wishes of humanity, and as broad as the seas 
and as generous as the sun. 

Charity stands upon a broad and elevated 
plane of life and looks in pity and in sym- 
pathy upon the selfish, the downcast, the 
unfortunate, and yearns with an infinite long- 
ing to accomplish something that will better 
the race and alleviate its sufferings. 


82 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


No radiant pearl which crested fortune wears 
No gem that, twinkling, hangs from beauty’s 
ears, 

Not the bright stars which night’s blue arch 
adorn, 

Nor rising suns that gild the vernal morn, 
Shine with such luster as the tear that breaks 
For other’s woe, down virtue’s manly cheeks. 

— Darwin. 

Many of the world’s organizations have a 
strong tendency to selfishness and absurd 
clannishness, but sweet charity whispers in 
gentle tones, “ We are all children of the 
same God, all groping in the wilderness, and 
crying, 4 Lead, Kindly Light ! ’ ” 

Charity speaks tenderly and says, 44 To err 
is human; to forgive, divine.” 

Charity bears no anger, no malice, no envy. 
She knows not the meaning of hate. She 
does not sit in judgment, dealing out life’s 
sentences of pain and sorrow either to friend 
or foe, saint or sinner. 

Charity’s mission is to augment the sum 
of human happiness. Charity is the queen in 
the kingdom of the unselfish. Charity’s 
teachings are that words of encouragement 
are often better than gold. Charity tells us 
that as we journey through life we may often 
meet men and women bowed in sorrow, 
caused by errors or by misfortunes, that are 
not tinged with the blight of poverty, but 
still their lives are dark and desolate, and if, 
during these times, a cheery hand is placed 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 83 

upon their shoulder, or if they are taken by 
the arm and the beauties and purposes of 
life are pointed out to them, their lives may 
be saved from ruin, misery, and death. 

Charity may be defined as helpfulness in 
thought, in word, and in deed. 

Pure heartfelt charity may be expressed 
without the aid of gold or wealth. 

Charity whispers, Should poverty overtake 
a brother, help him if in your power so to do ; 
but let it be by stealth, and then blush to 
find it fame. If you help a man and per- 
form the act as if throwing a bone to a dog, 
it is not charity, it is the abuse of it, and if 
you expect something in return for your 
deed it is not charity. 

Charity is the grandest of virtues; ingrati- 
tude, the basest of crimes. 

Charity is ever appreciative, and is always 
alert to reciprocate a pleasant smile or a 
kindly deed. 

Charity goes to the bedside of the sick, 
speaks kindly to the erring ones, and when 
men differ in opinion leads them from error 
under the light of reason, battles for prin- 
ciples, desires only to kill the evil, — not the 
man, — and this is charity. 

Charity is ever thoughtful for the comfort 
and welfare of all of earth’s children, ready 
to succor — to bless and cheer. Her name 
is — Charity. 

Charity is ever kind and faithful; never 
stings with unkind words an absent one. 

Charity is the badge of moral nobility. 


84 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

In the words of the immortal Lincoln, 
“ Live with malice toward none, and with 
charity for all.” 

Then charity will have cast its benign in- 
fluence, and true and noble lives will be the 
result. 


THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT 

The commandment “ Thou shalt not kill,” 
Christ tells us, is violated when we are angry 
with our brother, and in I John 3:15 it is 
declared that “ Whosoever hateth his brother 
is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer 
hath eternal life abiding in him.” 

This does not mean that man murders his 
brother by hating him. It means that man 
murders himself, or, in other words, he de- 
stroys the Holy Spirit, the God within him- 
self, by hating. 

There cannot be room in eternal life for 
anything like hate. The man who hates is 
destructive and chaotic; he infuses the at- 
mosphere with prejudicial poison; he is a 
dark cloud amidst the sunshine. He may sit 
in the glare of a noonday sun, yet he is in 
darkness. By his hate he destroys the source 
of light and love, and dies spiritually by his 
own choosing before he really knows the joys 
of living. There is no eternal life abiding in 
the man who hates. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


85 


SUNSHINE IN THE MORNING 
MENTAL CONTROL 

Get into your very soul the life-thought of 
truth, of cheerfulness, of refinement, of 
beauty, and hold it perpetually. By so doing 
you will exclude from your mind all silly 
errors and perplexities. Thus will you find 
the essence of life, and the one who finds and 
holds this secret gets down to the verity of 
things and becomes a God-man, and lives in 
harmony with the basic principles of the uni- 
verse. This sublime consciousness never 
comes to those who simply exist or float on 
the surface of things. 

Mental action controls in a very large de- 
gree the physical functions of the human 
body, and suggestion is a mighty force or 
power, for good or for evil, as we choose to 
receive it or to use it. If we would have and 
enjoy health and peace, love and charity, we 
must live for these blessings and be worthy 
of them. 

Fear, anger, jealousy, bad temper, hate, and 
uncharitableness are forerunners of disease. 
After a fit of any of these evil-germ breeders, 
not considering the horrible deeds done while 
the spasm is on, depression and sordidness 
take hold of the very flesh, blood, bone, mind, 
and spirit of the individual, and in many 
cases illness, insanity, misery, and death are 
the results. 


86 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


r 


It requires but little thoughtful study of 
the nervous system to realize the absolute 
truth of this statement. On the other hand, 
the dullest mind of the crudest thinker may 
comprehend and realize the uplifting effects 
of kindness, serenity, cheerfulness, and sun- 
shine on one’s own self, and upon those with 
whom we may come in contact — at home, on 
the street, anywhere. 

/Through fits of anger and hate the tissues 
and the life fluids of the body, even the sweat 
of the brow, become a destroying poison 
which produces innumerable troubles in the 
body physical, which in time affects per-j 
manently the whole make-up of the man. v 


a* 


The first thing in the morning cleanse 
your teeth, your mouth, and your body. 
Remember cleanliness is the most important 
attribute of man. See to it that you are abso- 
lutely sweet, pure, and clean in body and in 
mind. Let your morning thoughts be bright 
and cheerful, your voice like music — soft and 
low. Begin the day with sunshine in your 
soul and diffuse it in your every act, and thus 
be true and in harmony with the infinite 
soul that permeates life. /If an evil, grouchy 
spirit possess you, /change the current before 
you leave your chamber or before you meet 
your loved ones and friend^' Fan into flame 
the flickering torch of love and good will. 
We have no right to cast an evil influence 
or to be a cloud, and thus darken the lives 
of others. ^If you yourself are in spiritual 

ye'iX^. 

-^6 






A MAN WORTH WHILE 87 

darkness, push back the blinds from the win- 
dows of the soul and let God’s sunshine 6f 
fraternal love permeate your being, and 
should it seem an effort, look at the shadow 
of your darkened self in the mirror, then aim 
to beautify your face by good thoughts, 
cheery words, and pleasant smiles. 

If it is a task at first to do this, make the 
effort. It will pay you in happiness. Try it! 
Smile, and command yourself to smile again 
and again. You will soon discover that the 
mists and fogs obscuring the light have rolled 
away and peace, in living, loving, and being 
loved the livelong day, will be your reward. 

“ Each morn if you would rightly live 
On this terrestrial ball, 

Name o’er your foes and then forgive, 

Or don’t get up at all.” 


PREJUDICE 

Prejudice is the midnight burglar of hap- 
piness in human life. 

Prejudice robs us of life’s sweetest per- 
fume; we see no flowers in the gardens of 
others; the mind becomes narrowed, dwarfed, 
and cramped. Our whole life and being be- 
comes a morass where slimy serpents crawl 
and coil and cringe. Prejudice may be lik- 
ened to a prison cell with walls both dense 
and cold. No ray of heavenly sunlight pene- 


88 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


trates the gloom. The mind is in darkness 
when caged in the cell of prejudice. 

When prejudice enters the mind, the light 
of God goes out, and man sits in darkness. 
It obliterates the essence of divinity and 
makes of man a walking thing in human 
shape. 

Prejudice causes, in the field of life, a 
stagnant pool instead of a babbling brook, 
which sings its merry song and hurries on 
through hill and dale, cheering as it goes, 
making the meadows green and turning the 
wheels of industry. 

Prejudice causes men to become, as it were, 
posts, rather than trees. Under its blighting 
influence, villages and towns become mu- 
seums and curiosity shops, instead of thriv- 
ing cities with life, purity, and anima- 
tion. 

To be a man in the true sense, the mind 
must not be befogged by prejudice and stu- 
pidity. The higher faculties must be in 
operation to be really alive. Whatever 
issues from an impure source, where reason 
does not exist or where it is dethroned, where 
hate and anger rule the action, it matters 
not how eloquent or well chosen the words, 
or how beautiful the diction; — all of it is but 
as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals, leav- 
ing a trail of sorrow in its wake. Every man 
who raves in anger at his fellows, either in 
speech or with pen, reflects the status of his 
own soul and not of the one who is the ob- 
ject or target of his venomous mind. Noth- 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 89 

in g of good ever comes from scattering 
poisonous weeds in the garden of life. 

Thinkers who think will have none of the 
stuff that emanates from a darkened and 
withered soul, which has been debauched and 
destroyed by prejudicial poison. 

Prejudice is the handiwork of the devil, 
and it is the most devilish and most powerful 
dam that ever obstructed the river of intel- 
lectual humane life. 

Prejudice prevents the flow of the living 
waters of truth and love, and all along the 
way poisonous germs of hate, ignorance, 
bigotry, and misery are spawned and scat- 
tered over the otherwise golden fields of in- 
tellectual thought and happiness. It blights 
and ruins all it touches. 

Prejudice gives us the cactus and the nettle, 
where the violet and the lily should grow and 
thrive and bless and cheer. 


RACE PREJUDICE 

Not only have creeds, societies, and in- 
dividuals killed and been killed through il- 
liberal prejudicial thought, but race prejudice 
has played havoc with the same spirit. 

Nearly every race has had a taste of this 
devilish thing, and in turn when in power 
has tortured in worse manner than the 
former, and with all of our churches and re- 
fining societies there seems to be but little 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


go 

abatement in this ignorant and stupid spirit 
of bigotry. 

The Jew has had an awful deal at the hands 
of Christians, and is still in it, and as they cry, 
“ Kill him!” they say, “It is only a Jew!” 
The Irish, the English, the French, the 
Italian, the German, and from now on God 
help the poor negro! I know that this mur- 
derous prejudicial clamor has not only caused 
untold physical and mental suffering, but it 
has retarded the growth of reason and the 
development of fraternal human life. 

We shall never have a decent world to live 
in until race prejudice is obliterated; not until 
we meet and recognize the American, the 
Hebrew, the Irishman, the Italian, the 
Frenchman, the German, and other races 
and peoples as men and women,— a universal 
brotherhood. 

Morality and honor are founded on the 
recognition, worth, and responsibility of the 
individual; and if advantages come with 
heredity, then this advantage merely calls us 
to a higher plane of helpfulness and a deeper 
responsibility. 

As to religious prejudice, this is the devil 
twin to race prejudice, and has been a curse 
to the world all across the ages. Every man 
seems to imagine the other fellow is wrong, 
and that he owns a copyright on earth and 
heaven, and like a peacock he struts and 
cackles and makes of himself a judge, a dic- 
tator of the other man’s heart and mind. 

A thinking man will always recognize the 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


9i 


absolute fact that his neighbor’s religion, and 
the ceremonies combined with it, are his 
neighbor’s private concern. 

The inner consciousness of religion is 
dearer and more sacred than life itself. 

“ Just let him hold what faith he please; 

I know a man whate’er his make. 

I care not where he crooks the knees, 

I grasp his honest hand and shake.” 

John Fiske said, “ A man’s belief is a part 
of the man; take it away by force, and he will 
bleed to death.” 

If you imagine that you have climbed the 
shining heights of intellect and knowledge, 
and if you are sure you have found the per- 
fect way, then in manly confidence and ten- 
derness open your arms in fraternal love and 
beckon your fellow pilgrims up into the 
brighter light, the purer way, in place of cut- 
ting them with daggers of ridicule and pierc- 
ing their souls with scorn. Turn the search- 
light upon your inner self before you call 
your brother a fool. Cast out from your 
heart vile prejudice, and let the sunlight of 
fraternal love permeate your being, your soul, 
your mind, and your heart. Think for your- 
self, and decide for yourself, under the light 
of reasoning manhood, with good will to- 
ward all and malice toward none. 


92 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


REVENGE 

“ The fairest action of our human life, 

Is scorning to revenge an injury; 

For who forgives without a further strife, 
His adversary’s heart to him doth tie. 
And ’tis a firmer conquest, truly said, 

To win the heart, than overthrow the head.” 

To act meanly, to express distorted views 
of one’s fellowmen, produces inharmony in 
one’s self that expresses itself in a distorted 
mind filled with crooked thoughts. Thus 
man makes of himself a mental and moral 
deformity as actual as though it were phys- 
ical. Seek revenge on any human being for 
any real or imaginary wrong, and when you 
find it and you have your victim at your feet, 
in your clutch, or in stripes, what have you 
for your pay? — this and nothing more — a 
ruined self. You may have brought some 
suffering to your object of hate, but you 
have poisoned yourself. All the base ma- 
terial of primitive nature has been developed 
in you and from now on, at the fountain of 
life, you must forever drink the bitter waters 
of wormwood. Wherever you may journey 
amongst your fellowmen, your eye, your face, 
your form, and your handclasp will tell the 
sad story of a wrecked soul, of the destruc- 
tion of your higher and nobler self. You 
have exchanged real values for base ones. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


93 

You have planted poisonous weeds in the 
garden of life and your harvest is misery. 

When evil possesses you and you are ready 
to deal vengeance, take my advice — keep your 
lips sealed, then go to your private chamber 
and there alone meditate, read Emerson, 
Tennyson, Longfellow, Tolstoi, Drummond, 
Trine, and from other helpful sources. Bet- 
ter still — “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; 
if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing, 
thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” 
By this method, you will purify self-judgment 
and save your enemy as well as yourself. Put 
yourself for a while by thought in your ene- 
my’s place or grade, and you will cease abus- 
ing him. Then again, if your very being is per- 
meated with hate and meanness, pause for a 
moment and look toward Calvary, listen again 
and again to the tenderest, grandest philo- 
sophic prayer ever uttered from the depths 
of the soul — “Father, forgive them; they 
know not what they do.” It matters not 
how low a man may have fallen into the mire 
of meanness and misery. He cannot sink 
low enough but that some trace of his divine 
origin is evident. It is better to be wronged 
than to wrong. It is better to be abused than 
to abuse. It is better to be poor and kind 
than to be rich and unkind. It is better to 
die in a hovel — a man, than to die in a palace 
— a snob! It is better to be a true man than 
anything else in the world. Nothing is 
gained by railing against the bad. Let us 
keep our minds, our aspirations on the good, 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


94 

and we can only do so by being cognizant 
of the pitfalls. The truth is the best in what- 
ever path we tread. And why may you or 
I not be this kind of a man? It is impossible 
to have an enemy unless we hold enmity. 
A clear, pure, honest man knows how to kill 
the devil, and he kills him by living a good 
life. Keep the devil out of your heart and 
mind, and the devil is dead. 

By failing to be men and to forgive what 
are termed enemies, we make of ourselves a 
storehouse of trouble. Every moment of life 
is precious; then do not allow silly, chatter- 
ing, undeveloped beings to worry you by 
petty slander and peevish acts and thus rob 
you of peace and tranquillity of mind — life's 
best and choicest gifts. The curtain will 
soon fall on the last scene of life's drama for 
all of us. The longest life is at best but a 
breath, and it is gone; so beware of petty 
mental thieves. Never worry as to people 
liking you, live your own life, be worthy of 
self-esteem: honor bright, this is enough. 

“ What are another's faults to me? 

I've not a vulture's bill to pick at every 
fault I see, 

And make it wider still; 

It is enough for me to know I've follies of 
my own, 

And on my heart the care bestow, and let 
my friend alone." 


WHAT MIGHT BE DONE 
By Charles Mackay 

What might be done if men were wise — 
What glorious deeds, my suffering brother, 
Would they unite 
In love and right, 

And cease their scorn of one another! 

Oppression’s heart might be imbued 
With kindling drops of lovingkindness; 

And knowledge pour 
From shore to shore 
Light on the eyes of mental blindness. 

All slavery, v/arfare, lies, and wrongs, 

All vice and crime, might die together; 
And wine and corn, 

To each man born, 

Be free as warmth in summer weather. 

The meanest wretch that ever trod, 

The deepest sunk in guilt and sorrow, 

Might stand erect 
In self-respect 

And share the teeming world to-morrow. 

What might be done? — This might be done, 
And more than this, my suffering brother — 
More than the tongue 
E’er said or sung, 

If men were wise and loved each other. 

95 


g6 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


MANHOOD VS. INTEMPERANCE 

“ Noble is he whose moral strength 
Beats down the walls of wrong, 

Whose honest manhood uplifts man, 
Whose life is like a song; 

The brave and steadfast conqueror 
Of appetite and sin, 

He flings Hope’s stately portals wide 
And bids the lost come in.” 

Words are inadequate to fully describe 
Nature in her many phases. We cannot de- 
scribe the tempest, nor yet can we describe 
the peaceful calm of the summer zephyrs. 

I have stood on the deck of a vessel when 
old ocean was roused in her angry might and 
wave after wave dashed together as with a 
roar of artillery and showers of snowy spray 
were sent heavenward. 

I have seen Nature couched in the valley, 
arrayed in her gay robes of grass and flowers, 
calm and serenely beautiful as the summer 
morning. 

I have stood in the gloomy canyon and 
watched the wild elements battling, as it 
were, for supremacy. The rattling thunders 
mingling with the lightning’s flash added 
gloom and grandeur to the scene, while high 
above rose clear and majestic the mountain 
summit bathed in sunlight. 

Words and colors cannot paint the thun- 
der’s roar, nor the warmth of the summer’s 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 97 

sunshine, nor can they depict or paint the 
sorrows and sufferings of the human heart. 

The battling of the elements is a part of 
nature and is in itself a necessity, but, alas, 
how often is poor humanity forced to carry 
an unnecessary sorrow. Man, in himself a 
creator, is by his own folly made a mere 
thing — his mind, a part of the Divinity, is 
crushed and thrust from its home of clay, 
for it cannot live in an unclean sphere. 

As the bulb or the seed of a lily — a flower — 
requires a pure atmosphere in which to live 
and thrive, even so must this spark of divinity 
have a pure material home in which to de- 
velop into a being of righteous thought and 
intelligence. 

Humanity’s great sorrows we thus allude 
to are born and nourished by the damning 
use of alcohol. Again, words and colors can- 
not portray the wrecks cast upon the barren 
shores of the sea of intemperance. 

It needs no statistics to prove that disease, 
waste, pauperism, and crime can be as directly 
traced to this devilish thing — alcohol — as the 
stream can be traced to its source, and neither 
pen nor tongue can portray the wretchedness 
following in the wake of the drinking habit, 
— foe alike to the man physical and the man 
spiritual. 

Ruined husbands, broken-hearted wives, 
helpless, hapless children, poverty, suffering, 
and disgrace, their common portion. Think 
for a moment of the husband’s curse, the 
wife’s appeal, the little ones’ wailing cry, 


g8 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

mingled together in an agony of protest and 
despair that might well make angels weep. 


TWO PICTURES 

The results of the use of alcohol are mani- 
fold. One man it makes foolish, another a 
maniac. Illustrative of the foolish drunk, let 
me tell you a story, told, I believe, years ago, 
by John B. Gough. A man, a husband, comes 
home very late at night. His wife had re- 
tired, having become weary waiting for her 
“ lord and master.” In her labors for the 
family, she had left upon the sewing machine 
a goblet into which she had thrown her spools 
of silk and cotton. When the “ lord ” came 
home, — he was pretty drunk, — and, of course, 
his thirst craved for cooling ice-water. He 
took the pitcher standing on the sideboard 
and filled the glass with water which held 
the silk. He gulped it down, silk and all, 
and in his maudlin condition he realized that 
something was wrong. He began to draw 
the silk from his mouth, and in fright and 
despair cried, — “Wife! wife! help me! I’m 
unraveling ! I’m unraveling ! ” 

But the results of drunkenness are not al- 
ways ludicrous. There is a tragic side. I’ll 
tell you one tragic story out of many we see 
in our everyday life. 

A few years ago, in a suburb of one of 
our large cities, a prominent business man 
had a fine home, a beautiful family consist- 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


99 

ing of a wife and two baby girls, and, as in 
the other story, the loved ones had retired, 
wearied of waiting. In this case drink had 
made of the man a maniac. He comes to his 
beautiful home in the clutch of the demon 
alcohol. His brain afire, he goes into the 
sleeping chamber where peacefully his family 
slept. He seizes his wife by the hair of her 
head and throws her about the room — mur- 
ders her, orphaning their two sweet baby 
girls, making of himself a murderer by tak- 
ing the life of a loving wife, the mother of 
his children. An alarm was sounded, the 
man — mad — was subdued and taken to prison. 
In the morning he awoke from his stupor to 
find himself in a prison-cell. Trembling with 
fear, he asks, “ Where am I? ” He was told 
by the jailor that he was a prisoner, under a 
very serious charge. The wreck of a man 
cried, in tones of anguish, “ Does my wife 
know it?” 


Can you trust yourself with such a habit? 
Its fruit is woe and unspeakable wretched- 
ness. It has sent respectability to hide its 
head in the poorhouse. What hope so pre- 
cious it has not blighted! What career so 
promising it has not wrecked! What heart 
so tender, what temper so fine, what things 
so noble and sacred that have escaped its 
withering curse! Touched by its scorching 
flame, the laurel has changed into ashes on 
the brow of the genius. The wings of the 


100 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


poet have been scorched by it. It has pol- 
luted the ermine of the judge and defiled the 
sanctity of the pulpit. Many a man gifted 
with faculties divine has been cast down from 
his ideal sphere to die in a drunkard’s grave. 

If you would see the frightful ravages of 
this wretched habit, go with me to yonder 
house. There look into the eye of a care- 
worn woman with half-starved babes clinging 
to her faded dress. Hunger has stilled the 
joyous voice of baby prattle. But, ah! an- 
other guest was here before you. Poverty, 
the legitimate child of the hydra-headed 
habit of intemperance. Listen while she tells 
you the story of her life — the wooing, the 
wedding-bells, when heart beat high, when 
fires of youth and hope were like wine in the 
veins, when the rainbow of promise spanned 
the future, and life was in its summer-time. 
Then was the noonday. Now it is night. 
The lights are low, the hearth is cold, the cup- 
board bare. Love and faith are in the throes 
of despair. 

“Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of 
it each day, and finally it becomes so strong 
we cannot break it.” 

The boy weaves the habit; the habit weaves 
the man. 

Vile habits or sinful pleasures may be 
likened unto a snake; they coil and coil until 
they envelop one’s very being. Sin like a thief 
in the night steals the jewels of the soul, leav- 
ing the shell — the empty casket. The divine 
principle retires from man, and when this 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


IOI 


is gone one may sit in the glare of a noon- 
day sun and yet be in total darkness. 

The outward and visible tokens are far 
less than those that are within. You may 
tabulate the amount of money worse than 
wasted, but you cannot estimate the sum- 
total of misery which hides in the homes of 
the rich as well as of the poor. 

You may hear the squabble between boon 
companions at the bar, but you do not hear 
the sighs and sobs of the wife, who can hardly 
keep the children in rags or feed them with 
crusts. You do not see her when she listens 
with palpitating heart for the shuffling foot- 
steps of the besotted husband, or when the 
trembling children are hastily hidden that 
they may escape the father’s cruel blows and 
foul words. She does not proclaim all this 
from the housetop. 

This curse falls on other homes than those 
of poverty. Fathers and mothers, brothers 
and sisters, these know the wretched family 
secret which they hide as long as they can 
from an uncharitable world. There are ten- 
der hearts stabbed with a secret wound 
which bleeds in silence. Many a brave 
woman suffers quietly, like the wounded dove 
which clasps her white wings to hide the 
wound from which her life’s tide is welling. 
God only knows the domestic tragedies of 
which no whisper is heard in public. So you 
may have seen a fragment of wreck on the 
shore — the broken mast — the twisted iron, — 
and though you pass it by thoughtlessly, if 


102 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

it could speak it would tell of men gone down 
in the sea to death. 

There are few families so happy as not to 
have had someone near to them, either in 
imminent peril, or the slave of intemperance. 


MY MOTHER’S SONG 


Much depends upon the impressions made 
upon the child. It must have some forcible 
lesson by which it is taught to be true unto 
itself. 

While life lasts I shall never forget the song 
my mother sang to me to the accompaniment 
of the bells, when we lived in the shadow of 
St. Mary’s Church in Old England. 

At noon these bells would chime a complete 
melody. My brother and myself had been 
urged to be on hand promptly, even before the 
first stroke. When the bells began to chime, 
these are the words my mother sang: 

“ There goes the drunkard 
Staggering, reeling to and fro. 

Do you wish to be like him? 

No! No! No! 

“ He was once as young as we, 

Happy, thoughtless, and free, 

Care nor pain nor ache had he 
Morning, noon, nor night. 

“ Now he is a drunkard 
Staggering, reeling to and fro. 

Do you wish to be like him? 

No! No! No! 


103 


104 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


Our mother lovingly emphasizing, with 
gentle hand upon our shoulders, “No! No! 
No! ” 

This was my childhood's lesson. I have 
seen a good portion of the world and have 
associated with many kinds of men, but with 
temptation or no temptation I could never 
be a drunkard. I had my awakening in boy- 
hood. Intemperance ruins the body as well 
as the intellect. 


A H- 


OF A TIME! 


Some years ago while traveling in the far 
West in behalf of a fraternal society, I met 
on one of the main streets of Portland, Ore- 
gon, three young fellows, one of whom I 
knew. I also knew his parents, who resided 
in my home town. 

The three boys were “ on a spree/’ and of 
course were intoxicated. Seeing me, in jocu- 
larity they remarked, “ Good-morning,” and 
then, calling me by name, said, “ We are hav- 
ing a h of a time ! ” I clasped their hands 

and, replying in jocular words, led them to the 
curbstone. One of them remarked, “ Now 
he’s going to lecture us.” I answered, “ No, 
boys. I am not going to lecture you; I just 
want to correct your declaration of your hav- 
ing 4 a h of a time ’ ; that’s all ! I do not 

believe in a fellow counting his chickens be- 
fore they are hatched, and especially so when 
we know the eggs are bad. But, boys, I’ll give 
you a pointer. It’s a ‘fool’ time you are having 
now, but you keep on the way you are going, 
say, for twenty years. Then you may come 
to me when your face is pale and haggard, 
your form is bent and weak, your limbs are 
feeble and tottering, your hand is palsied, and 
your whole being simply a wreck of its former 
self, — a thing in human shape to be laughed 
at and avoided. It will then be the truth 
105 


106 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

when you say, 4 Mr. Meakin, I’m having a 
h of a time! ’ ” 

My young friends, if you would not lay up 
for yourselves a fearful measure of retribu- 
tion, avoid such a Time. How musical in 
the ears of Judas was the jingling of the 
thirty pieces of silver while it was in the 
hands of the chief priest — the treasurer! Yet 
how dull and empty was the ring as he dashed 
them down in his agony of remorse! Their 
luster had been tarnished by the tinge of 
innocent blood, and is it not always so? 
There’s many a deadly poison which is pleas- 
ant to the taste — there’s many a fatal lullaby 
which is charming to the ear — a siren voice 
which lures you to your mortal undoing. 
There’s many a dead-sea apple that is tempt- 
ing to the eye. There’s many a cruel hand 
that is as soft as velvet. 

There is said to have been kept in the hall 
of the Inquisition a beautiful statue of a 
woman. The utmost art and skill of the 
painter and sculptor had been enlisted to add 
charm to charm in exquisite coloring, tender- 
ness of expression, and graceful molding of 
form and feature. The white arms were un- 
draped and extended wide as though to em- 
brace — the eyes and lips — the whole attitude 
was full of winning invitation. The con- 
demned heretic was led into this fair presence 
and commanded to advance, and as he does 
so the figure embraces him. The fair, white 
arms encircled him, not with a caress of love, 
but with the vice-like clutch of vengeance. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


107 

The bosom opened and the lips expanded 
and a hundred gleaming knives transfixed the 
victim with a hundred scarlet stabs. The 
parted lips thrust out a barbed tongue and 
showed fanged teeth to lacerate and tear, — 
in short, the beauty was transformed into a 
beast, — the fairy form became an armory of 
poniards. Every charm concealed a death 
device, every grace was tipped with poison. 
Is it not so with the Demon Drink? 

Decking her bed with roses she diffuses 
her poison beneath their fragrance and lulls 
her silly victim with a counterfeit repose. 
Rest not on her pillow; the venom of asps 
lurks beneath its snowy down. Recline not 
on her sunny knoll. Volcanic fires burn be- 
neath the moss and the flames of hell light 
up her transient heaven. 


LINCOLN’S ASSASSINATOR 

That drunkenness leads to crime, no reason- 
able man will deny. When whisky gets the 
mastery, reason is dethroned — a devil wields 
the scepter, and life is hell. Conscience is 
dulled, the will paralyzed. He who was once 
a king in his self-rule is degraded into little 
else than a brute. Repeatedly criminals have 
acknowledged that they had deliberately 
keyed themselves up to the commission of 
some wicked deed by guzzling intoxicants. 
Its influence dominated Booth, Lincoln’s 
assassinator. When he saw his victim in the 


108 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

box at the theater, calmly enjoying the play, 
unconscious of his impending doom, Booth’s 
better feelings were stirred. In order to 
nerve himself he hastened out to the nearest 
bar and called for brandy, and drank until the 
voice of his good angel was stilled. Then, 
demon-possessed, he returned to his deadly 
work and committed the act which robbed 
the earth of Abraham Lincoln, a man mag- 
nificent, one of the strongest personalities of 
American history. 

Alcohol is not responsible for special acts 
of crime only, but the nature which is ready 
to commit is by alcohol developed. Statistics 
plainly demonstrate this fact. 

We know that pauperism is largely due to 
intemperance. We know men who, if they 
worked all the week, as most may do, and 
were total abstainers, would be as well condi- 
tioned as most professional men and trades-* 
men. Yet they live on the verge of pauper- 
ism and helplessly roll over it at the first 
touch of illness or of business depression. 
The major part of their earnings is spent 
with boon companions in the barroom or the 
grog-shop. 

On Monday morning they return to their 
work unnerved and unfitted for the day’s toil. 
Such men lose their skill, and are the first set 
adrift when work is slack. They become 
idlers and vagabonds and finally paupers. 

Intemperate selfishness is the mother of all 
the vices. Her children are slothfulness, in- 
difference, sorrow, and crime. Her hold is 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 109 

like that of the octopus ; her wage is your soul. 
The habit of intemperance is a noxious growth 
in our garden of life. Will you help me pluck 
it? Begin with yourself to-day. It is only 
by moving one man at a time that the com- 
munity is ever moved. Opinions and emo- 
tions may rush through a city like an electric 
shock, it is true, but even then they pass from 
individual to individual. 

But one man — and you cannot do much, 
you say. Look across the ages and com- 
mune with the shades of greatness gone be- 
fore. How was Christianity introduced? 
By one man. How was the American Revo- 
lution effected? By the colonies lifting them- 
selves en masse and throwing off the yoke of 
tyranny? No. The army of patriots was en- 
listed man by man. How was the Reforma- 
tion brought about? By one man. 

“ When by others urged to tread 
A path you should not go, 

Let them blame you if they will, 

But firmly answer, No! 

“ Do the right with all your might; 

A good example show, 

Nor fear to speak that little word — 
No! No! No! ” 

Considering the temptations to which our 
customs expose us, these facts do not astonish 
us; but to see a father or mother, a brother 


IIO 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 

or sister venturing on the edge of a whirlpool 
in whose devouring vortex they have seen 
one whom they loved engulfed, does fill us 
with astonishment. 

I knew a mother once who saw her only 
son drowned. Years came and went ere she 
could calmly look upon the ocean or hear 
without pain the roar of the waves where 
her boy was lost. 

How many have a cause to hate the sight 
of spirituous liquors ! Considering how many 
are lost — drowned in the sea of intemperance 
— I do wonder to see a father indulging in 
the cup that had been poison and death to 
his son. Why does he not cast it away with 
horror? Spill the ruby potion — it is red with 
the blood of your boy — fling the cup away 
and afar that it may not be the death of 
your neighbor’s boy! 

What agencies for evil are so potent and 
subtle? How long shall custom shield from 
infamy and disgrace those who profit by this 
evil. 

Our attitude toward the drink question is 
inconsistent and unworthy of the spirit and 
intelligence of the day. While we require the 
maintenance of schools to promote knowledge 
and virtue we license schools of profligacy 
and vice. While we build prisons and punish 
crime we legalize that which fills the one and 
promotes the other — we legalize the cause 
and punish the effect. Professing to be a 
Christian people, we receive into our treasury 
the price for which we license, the surest 


A MAN WORTH WHILE hi 

means of shutting heaven against our fellow- 
beings. 

Our main hope in banishing intemperance 
lies in raising the tone of public feeling and 
opinion, in developing the good in each in- 
dividual. 

I venture to suggest the following measures: 
Laws should be enacted that will regard 
every man or woman who can be proved 
before a jury to be in habit and repute a, 
drunkard as a lunatic, and deal with him or 
her accordingly. The prospect of imprison- 
ment with the insane would strike men with 
terror. Habits of enforced sobriety would, 
in many instances, so restore the body and 
brain to health that the unfortunate person 
would acquire the strength to resist tempta- 
tion — the slave would acquire freedom in the 
house of bondage. To the parents disgraced 
by a drunken son, to the wives ill-treated by 
drunken husbands, what a relief would such 
a law bring! 

In justice, the law ought to give relief to 
the good as against the evil doer. It’s strange 
to see how society stands by and allows so 
many to waste their lives and their wages, 
and thereby throw the burden of supporting 
their families on the sober and industrious 
part of the community. 

Virtue is taxed to support vice. 

As the drunkard is held responsible, or 
ought to be, for all that he does in a state of 
drunkenness, the law should declare that the 


1 12 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


keeper of the saloon within which he got 
drunk shall share in his responsibility. No 
man should have a right for the sake of 
money to convert another into a madman, 
and having turned him out on society, to say, 
of whatever offense in his madness he com- 
mits, “ My hands are clean! ” If a man isn’t 
responsible for the crime he commits when 
drunk, he is, at least, responsible for getting 
drunk. The man who deprives himself of 
reason and thereby reduces himself to a con- 
dition wherein he is liable to the commission 
of any sort of crime should be regarded as a 
subject for punishment, or at least for safe- 
keeping, and to be cured of bodily and men- 
tal disease, and the keeper of the saloon as 
equally guilty, morally without doubt. 

Those who create the poverty of the coun- 
try should be made to bear their part of its 
burden. The remedy is in our own hands. 
The health, happiness, morality, and welfare 
of posterity are in our own hands. We can 
strike the cup of fire from the drunkard’s lips ; 
we can loose the poor souls fast found in fet- 
ters they have forged for themselves. 

Let everyone feel that the success of life 
depends in part upon him or her. 

Sixty-five thousand lives are annually de- 
stroyed by intemperance, sixty-five thousand 
lives offered in annual sacrifice at the hideous 
shrine of this devil. 

Death is bitter enough under any circum- 
stances. However happy and fortunate we 
are in this world’s holdings, the memory of 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


113 

the loss we have sustained will throw on life’s 
brightest scenes the cold shadow of a cloud. 
Over how many of these sixty-five thousand 
deaths is there a mourning that has no com- 
fort? The drunkard’s legacy is sorrow and 
disgrace. Neither words nor tears can sound 
its depths of degradation and woe. 

We talk of war. What is war as com- 
pared with that? Give me her bloody bed; 
bury me and mine in a soldier’s, rather than 
in a drunkard’s, grave. See the pitiful pro- 
cession. Innocent children gone to their 
death through cold and hunger. Coffin lids 
closed over broken-hearted parents. Women 
weeping for womanhood lost— remorse gnaw- 
ing like a vulture at the vitals. Shattered 
wrecks that once were men now palsied of 
hand and shriveled of limb, their life’s tide 
ebbing low, their last days hedged about with 
privation and despair, ruined homes, posterity 
disgraced. They become derelicts, to be 
tossed to and fro on a shoreless sea. 

If you make a saloon-keeper rich and happy 
and yourself poor and miserable by blowing 
in your money and ruining your stomach, it’s 
up to you to take your medicine, not the 
saloon-keeper; every act is followed by its 
consequence. 

Mother Nature won’t stand for foolishness 
nor will she allow personal accounts to be 
charged to the other fellow. 

National reform is first personal reform, 
and that which we are we tend to make those 
about us. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


114 

“ Our deeds shall travel 
With us from afar, 

And what we have been 
Makes us what we are.” 

Oh, young men, if you would not wreck 
your prospects for this life and that which 
lies beyond the stars and the angels, shun in- 
temperance as you would the presence of the 
traditional Devil. 


HABITS 

WILL YOU PAY THE PRICE? 

James Whitcomb Riley was once asked the 
basis of his success. He answered, “ Dig, 
dig, dig.” He was right. We must study 
and work to find the true essence of life, to 
become developed, thinking things in the 
true sense of the term. The finest piece of 
land would give forth no harvest if not for 
cultivation. All teaching is wasted energy 
that does not result in practice, and results 
may be expected only through a union of 
effort, in example and practice by the teacher 
and the student. 

I once knew a man who had suddenly be- 
come rich by a lucky find of a silver mine, 
and of course he must make as big a show- 
ing as his rich brother. Therefore, he must 
have a library and a fine one too. When 
about to make his purchases he was shown 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 115 

into a large bookstore, and as he gazed at 
the mammoth shelving filled with finely 
bound books, he was amazed at the beautiful 
bindings, the pretty colors; and he began 
his trading by saying, “ I’ll take twenty feet 
this way and fifteen feet the other way.” 
He was buying a library by the yard. 

So it is with many men; the fine library, 
in many cases, is simply a showroom of 
pretty covers. They have an idea that they 
can buy education, art, and the sciences by 
the yard, and they prove it by dress and show. 

Intellectual advancement cannot be made 
in this way, and these are the people gen- 
erally who are the disgruntled and disap- 
pointed ones of earth. 

A youth goes to a wise man and says, “ Sell 
me some of your knowledge.” Can he pur- 
chase it by the piece or measure? No, not a 
bit of it. Knowledge is gained only by being 
true to your better self, the moral promptings 
of the inner soul; by thought and study and 
work and work. Greedy reading and con- 
tinual thinking are the necessary elements of 
power for intellectual graduation. Man de- 
velops little at a time, line upon line, precept 
upon precept, repetition and then again repe- 
tition, and everything we learn is as nothing 
unless we live according to what we have 
learned. By devotion to our aims and ob- 
jects erelong we graduate. It is the only 
way. The higher comprehension of the bet- 
ter things of life comes only through the de- 
velopment of the intellect, the perceptive and 


n6 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

reflective faculties, the moral and religious 
sentiments. These better and purer gifts 
cannot be purchased with gold. It is a mat- 
ter of developing thought-power, of gradually 
growing out of the darkness of ignorance into 
the sunlit fields of knowledge and truth. 

“ To be a philosopher is not merely to have 
subtile thoughts, nor even to found a school, 
but to so love wisdom as to live according to 
its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, 
magnanimity, and trust. 

“ It is to solve some of the problems of life, 
not only theoretically, but practically.” 

— Thoreau. 


MUSIC 

Life is a serious affair, yet not an unhappy 
one if lived right and made useful. It should 
not be treated as a trivial thing; the very 
fact of our being carries with it a responsi- 
bility, and we become strong and useful 
through the exercise of every faculty of the 
mind. The soul grows in beauty and in 
splendor by the development of the higher 
sensibilities. 


WHAT TO DO AND WHAT NOT TO DO 

It is just as necessary to know what not to 
do as what to do. Habits are both good and 
bad. First of all, avoid dissipation, fun, and 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 117 

frolic. Don’t let your time nor your health 
go up in smoke; be a man and not a “ good 
fellow/’ For recreation let your mind turn 
to the higher and better class of entertain- 
ment — music, song, art, the drama, literature, 
the opera, the play; and the greatest of these 
is music. 

“ The man that hath no music in himself, 
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet 
sounds, 

Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; 
The motions of his spirit are dull as night 
And his affections dark as Erebus; 

Let no such man be trusted. 

Mark the music.” 

— Shakespeare. 


GET THE HABIT 

Cultivate the love of music, learn to sing, 
learn to play some instrument. Music is in 
every soul; it needs only developing. With 
music a cheery friend accompanies us wher- 
ever we may journey. Music gives courage 
on life’s rough highway. Music refines the 
home and draws the family together in ten- 
der sentiments of reverence and aspiration. 

Music stirs the soul, develops the imagina- 
tive faculty, and unfolds the mental vision to 
the highest ideals of character and to a nobler 
life. Music inculcates the love of all that’s 
beautiful. Music awakens heroic virtues and 


n8 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

arouses in the sluggish breast enthusiasm. 
Music makes the heart tender, banishes 
clouds, cheers the faint and weary, smooths 
the passage to the grave. 

There’s music in the sighing of a reed; 
There’s music in the gushing of a rill; 
There’s music in all things; if men had ears, 
Their earth is but an echo of the spheres. 

— Byron. 

Music gives a distinctive force in social 
ranks and makes of man or woman a cheery, 
welcome guest. Music! — without its divine 
power human life would fade away and men 
become automatons, heartless and cold. Ye 
gods, take from me what you will, but leave 
me music, song, and I am happy. Cultivate 
the divine habit of music, and life may be a 
sweet song. 

By clean living you may be surrounded by 
delightful pleasures anywhere and every- 
where. Life itself is one vast wonderland of 
never-ceasing unfolding beauty. 

No man, however great he may have been, 
but has been weakened by vice or bad habits. 
Life is made up of habits. Good habits are 
just as easily cultivated as bad ones, if you 
only begin right. Thoughts or acts repeated 
become habits, and habits form character. 
Good habits are necessary to a good body as 
well as to a good mind. A bad habit is like 
a weak link in a chain, and the individual as 
a whole is no stronger than his weakest habit; 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


119 

so, to make an organism perfect and to have 
that organism enjoy the most perfect, suc- 
cessful life, you must use material— that is, 
habits — of the most select and enduring 
quality. 


TO YOUNG MEN 

Young man, you are about to launch your 
ship on a vast unknown main, beware of the 
mirages which only deceive. Do not mistake 
the false for the real. Do not delude your- 
self with the idea that any sort of a vice is 
justified or shielded by a virtue. 

You must learn that every faculty and every 
talent is in your own care and keeping for 
life’s success and continued happiness. You 
must know that to understand yourself and 
to control yourself, your appetites and pas- 
sions, is the first requisite for a successful and 
harmonious life. All those who journey in 
paths of dissipation, ignorant living, and ugly 
doing will sooner or later find themselves in 
the bogs and swamps of a ruined life, crying 
in the darkness, “ Merciful God, turn back 
Thy universe and give us yesterday.” 

See the wrecks all about us. Stroll for a 
few blocks about the main business streets of 
any city; study the faces and wretchedness 
of the besotted outcasts, and you may see 
depravity in all its hideousness. Forms which 
once were men, now bearing upon their faces 
expressions of disappointed expectation, 


120 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


thwarted hopes and misery, depicting in every 
look a wretched existence. 

I want to tell you that hell forever waits 
to engulf the thoughtless victims of wrong 
living, — not a hell in some faraway world, 
but in this one, here and now. Contracted 
skulls, dormant brains, people who do not 
think, who follow the promptings of their 
baser selves, are the makers and constructors 
of their own hell. 

What a priceless gift or blessing a little 
old-age sense would be to a boy if he could 
only get it! 


THE DRINKING HABIT 

Whisky drinking, as a beverage, is needless 
and useless. It creates appetites and mocks 
the meat it feeds upon. 

First stage: Foolish and unnecessary; a 
breeder of vile thoughts and evil ways. 

Second stage: Funny, ridiculous, idiotic; a 
laughing-stock for foolish men, a piteous ob- 
ject for barking dogs. 

Third stage: Debauching and destructive; 
misery and death. 

An appetite grows on the filthy garbage it 
feeds upon. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


121 


HABITS! 

TOBACCO 

Smoking defiles the body, blunts the edge 
of refinement, and destroys the judging sense. 
In parlor, club, and lodgeroom, smoking is 
the personification of selfishness, and just 
take a look at the man who chews — eh! 

First stage: A smart boy, sick and silly, a 
sorrow to parents. 

Second stage: An imaginary cultivated 
pleasure; on the road to ruin. 

Third stage: A nervous wreck, fetid breath, 
palsied hand; in many instances native re- 
finement and chivalry destroyed. 

GAMBLING 

Card-playing for fun is “ much ado about 
nothing.” It’s a leader toward evildoing 
and the shores of despair; to say the least, 
it’s a waster of precious time. Playing or 
gambling for money is getting something for 
nothing; it ruins both the robber and the 
robbed. 

LUST 

First stage: Destroys the man, forms the 
beast. 

Second stage: A wrecker of virtue, a de- 
stroyer of the home, and in the end a dis- 
honored grave. 


122 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


DRUGS 

Only thoughtless or very foolish people 
use drugs and narcotics except under the 
most careful advice of a skilled physician. 


Cursed be the social wants that sin against 
the strength of youth; 

Cursed be the social lies that warp us from 
the living truth; 

Cursed be the sickly forms that err from 
honest nature’s rule; 

Cursed be the gold that gilds the straitened 
forehead of the fool. 


— Tennyson. 


OPPORTUNITY 


By Walter Malone 

They do me wrong who say I come no more . 

When once I knock and fail to find you in; 
For every day I stand outside your door, 
And bid you wake, and rise to fight and win. 

Wail not for precious chances passed away, 
Weep not for golden ages on the wane! 
Each night I burn the records of the day — 
At sunrise every soul is born again! 

Laugh like a boy at splendors that have sped, 
To vanished joys be blind and deaf and 
dumb; 

My judgments seal the dead past with its 
dead, 

But never bind a moment yet to come. 

Though deep in mire, wring not your hands 
and weep; 

I lend my arm to all who say “ I can.” 

No shame-faced outcast ever sank so deep, 
But yet might rise and be again a man! 

Dost thou behold thy lost youth all aghast? 
Dost reel from righteous Retribution’s 
blow? 


123 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


124 

Then turn from blotted archives of the past, 

And find the future’s pages white as snow. 

Art thou a mourner? Rouse thee from thy 
spell ; 

Art thou a sinner? Sins may be forgiven; 

Each morning gives thee wings to flee from 
hell, 

Each night a star to guide thy feet to 
heaven. 


In answer to my request for permission to 
publish this truthful poem, I received the fol- 
lowing reply: 

Memphis, Tenn., September 13th, 1912. 
My dear Mr. Meakin: 

Certainly, use the lines if you desire. I 
enclose a correct copy of “ Opportunity.” 

Truly yours, 

(Signed) Walter Malone. 


THE HABIT OF IDLENESS 


The habit of idleness — beware of it. Idle- 
ness relaxes the fibers of the mind, overstrings 
the nerves, evaporates the spirit, saddens the 
soul, dulls the fancy, and stupefies a man to 
such a degree that he actually dies for want 
of thought. He is terrified at the chimeras 
conjured up by his own morbid imagination., 

Nature has made a law against laziness 
which has never been annulled. Pride, con- 
ceit, and prejudice often lead to laziness. 
Some regard work as a disgrace. The son 
of an honest father is ashamed of his father’s 
occupation; he wants to live in a more re- 
spectable way, as he is pleased to term the 
way of silly styles and idleness. 

Some talk of doing work that is beneath 
them. The indignity you should shirk is 
that of doing nothing. 

You will never find anything good enough 
for you unless you take what you can get. 

Menial labor means labor with a mean soul 
behind it. Far better is the laborer’s soiled 
hand, with a clean soul, than the white hand 
of the idler with an unclean soul behind it. 

Character is not cheapened because your 
duties are those of the kitchen, the mine, the 
carpenter bench, or as a section hand, a bar- 
ber, a street cleaner, a conductor, a clerk, 
125 


126 A MAN WORTH WHILE 


or a washerwoman. What would the world 
do without them? Nor is character ennobled 
because you have a large bank account, or 
sit behind mahogany desks. There are men 
in coal mines with souls as white as snow, 
and there are men in mansions with souls 
as black with sin as the miner’s face with 
coal dust. The one has the dirt on his face; 
the other on his soul. 

Don’t be afraid of losing “ your friends ” 
through being employed or engaged in any 
honest work. Should you lose a so-called 
friend through making an honest living and 
doing the best you can, in any kind of honest 
work, be thankful for the loss. He or she 
was not your friend, but a burden of mistrust 
and hypocrisy. You did not know him then, 
but he is now a man you know. 

Abraham Lincoln loved the common peo- 
ple. I suppose the term “ common people ” 
is applied to those who work. He said he 
knew God loved them because He made so 
many of them. 

Society is like pie: there are the upper and \ 
lower crusts; but the real substance is be- 
tween. 

The noblest soul the world ever saw ap- 
peared, not in the ranks of the indolent or 
as an aristocrat, “ but took upon himself the 
form of servant,” and when He washed His 
disciples’ feet, it meant something not very 
generally understood to-day. Honor or dis- 
honor does not arise from our employment. 
Act nobly your part and a nobler man than 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


127 

yourself does not exist. Avail yourself of 
opportunities as they come; they will prove 
stepping-stones to higher and better things. 

It is better to be a tree than a hitching- 
post. A garden is of more worth than a 
museum or a curiosity shop. 

If you can’t get what you want, want what 
you can get, and want it well, or you won’t 
do it well. 

The plow, the ax, the spade, and the hoe, 
in honest service, are a more beautiful pos- 
session than the mailed coat and the sword. 


EXTRAVAGANCE 

Then there is the habit of extravagance. 
There is a needless expenditure of money on 
dress for the purpose of display, for no one 
thinks more of you for being arrayed in pur- 
ple and fine linen. Your style of dressing is 
the index to your mind. When you dress 
beyond your means, you are extravagant. As 
a consequence what effort to seem rather than 
to be, what aping of others, what living be- 
yond incomes, what parting of company with 
self-respect, with independence, sometimes 
with conscience and honesty; all the em- 
bitterment and crushing care, not infrequently 
the utter ruin of those whose sole aim in life 
is to outshine their fellows! 

The man of means is often regarded by 
his family as a sponge to be squeezed, a 
goose to be plucked, a stream to be drained 


128 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


without diminishing its flow. Perhaps he 
resists these drafts, but the pumps are set 
going, and what man can withstand the tyr- 
anny of tears? He yields, but the end is 
near; bankruptcy stares him in the face. 
Selfish villain! cries the crowd. Others ex- 
press pity for his family; perhaps if they 
knew more they would pity him. Now, be 
manly and womanly; set your face like a flint 
against extravagance; lop off your super- 
fluities, put that which you do not need to- 
day aside as a reserve against illness and old 
age; be prudent and economical. 


TO BE A MAN 


THE SECRET 

Having pointed out some of the obstacles 
to success and some of the roads leading on- 
ward and upward, let us sum up the qualities 
necessary for success. 

These are intelligence, courtesy, and per- 
severance; and, we must add, honor in meet- 
ing your debts and obligations. 

The secret of success is a strict adherence 
to a scrupulous integrity. I grant that now 
and then a good man fails and a bad man 
seem to succeed; but as a rule, the martyred 
saints are a handful as compared with the 
martyred sinners. 

Integrity wins. Avoid all trickery and de- 
ception; do all things open and aboveboard. 
Let your actions be transparent and your ve- 
racity unimpeachable. 

Keep your heart clean, and your hands will 
keep themselves. Petty acts of meanness 
are the same in principle as the most gigantic 
frauds. 

Keep a tender conscience, and it will keep 
you. Let purity clothe you in a spotless robe. 
Let your tongue have no doubleness. 

In social and domestic matters, be sincere. 

129 


130 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

Do not practice yourself that which you con- 
demn in others. 

Tennyson wrote: — 

“ Self-reverence, 

Self-knowledge, 

Self-control. 

These three alone lead life to sovereign 
power.” 


A MAN: 


IN THE HIGHER SENSE 

A man is neither civilized nor educated 
until, under the light of reason, he is inter- 
ested in every good cause and ready to es- 
pouse it. 

Not until he recognizes in every man a 
brother and in every woman a sister. Not 
until he knows how to be a friend, and thus 
make and hold friends. 

Not until he is honest and his word is as 
good as his bond. 

Not until he can see something in the world 
beyond dollars and cents. 

Not until he is master of himself, his appe- 
tites and passions. 

Not until he can look beyond the stars and 
wonder at the wonders of the universe. Not 
until he can appreciate God’s handiwork in 
everything. 

Not until he knows enough to claim a re- 
lationship with God and stand ever ready to 
augment the sum of human happiness. 

Not until he can look with reverence and 
with wonderment at the miracle of birth. 

Not until there is sunshine in his soul, and 
no hatred in his heart. 

Not until he knows 


132 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


“ There are tongues in trees, 
Books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, 

And good in everything.” 


MANHOOD ACHIEVED 


A man is honest in all things. 

He knows it is better to be wrong accord- 
ing to the judgment of others, and think for 
himself, than be right by allowing others to 
think for him. 


He knows that human life is very like a 
tree, its growth is upward toward the light. 


He allows all men to be all things unto 
him: — it’s their right; he retains selfhood. 


He knows that to be blessed with more 
talents than his brother places upon him the 
responsibility and accords him the pleasure 
of extending a kindly helping hand to the 
ones less favored. He holds aloft the torch 
of reason and in manly confidence beckons 
his weaker brothers out of the morass of 
error into the sunlit fields of eternal truth. 


He knows that mind is vaster than the 
earth, therefore he must be true to his higher 
and better self, which is divine. 


He knows that being a man means the 
highest attainment possible in life — a man! 

*33 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


134 

He is cognizant of the fact that he who 
begs, bows, and cringes to his fellows, in so 
doing, exchanges highest values for things 
of no value. 


He lives without fear of any sort or shape, 
because while shielded by an armor of truth 
and righteousness there is nothing to fear. 


He is not a sycophant, a favor-seeker, nor 
a hypocrite. 


He has outgrown the words “ Master and 
Servant ” — they have no meaning to him, as 
commonly applied between man and man. 


He knows that a man of real character is 
a just man, and therefore cannot be a failure; 
he senses that a life of service is redemption 
in itself — though personally he be compelled 
to die in a hovel. 


He is slow to condemn, and when clamor 
fills the air he is watchful and prudent; he 
does not run with, nor echo the ravings of, 
thoughtless people — he looks with pity rather 
than blame at the mistakes and frailties of 
his fellows. 


His influence is felt for good at home, on 
the street, in business circles, and in public 
places, wherever he may go. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


135 


He is genial and kind and ever faithful to 
his trusts, whether of a public or private 
character. He being a man, death is pref- 
erable to dishonor. He has no superiors nor 
inferiors — he’s just a man, and he knows a 
king can be no more. He is prompt in keep- 
ing a promise because he is an active believer 
in the Golden Rule. 


He stands erect in honor and craves more 
than bread and sleep. He is in love with 
life and he works and hopes for every man, 
including himself. 


GOD AND RELIGION 


(Quoted from poem, “ God the Author of 
Nature,” by William Cowper, born 1731, 
died 1800.) 

There lives and works 
A soul in all things, and that soul is God; 
The beauties of the wilderness are His, 

That make so gay the solitary place, 

Where no eye sees them. And the fairer 
forms, 

That cultivation glories in, are His. 

He sets the bright procession on its way, 
And marshals all the order of the year; 

He marks the bounds which winter may not 
pass, 

And blunts its pointed fury; in its case, 
Russet and rude, folds up the tender germ 
Uninjured, with inimitable art; 

And, ere one flowery season fades and dies. 
Designs the blooming wonders of the next. 
The Lord of all, Himself through all diffused, 
Sustains, and is the life of all that lives. 
Nature is but a name for an effect, 

Whose cause is God. One spirit — His. 

Everything in science, in philosophy, and in 
theology points to the One. It matters not 
how diversified they seem to be, it is forever 
the same — a unit. 


136 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 137 

Every human being is naturally religious. 
Individual egotism, ignorance, conceit, and 
bigotry, growing out of our differences of 
opinion, are the causes of the unrest and 
trouble in our religious life. 

One must live in a higher realm than the 
one made of earth to be a real man. 

I would cling to the hope of a life beyond 
this earthly career, and ever hold to the 
thought of eternal progression, remembering 
that the life spiritual will live and survive 
while the life physical shall crumble and 
break into dust. Religious faith or real re- 
ligion is not declining. 

The church loses its membership, and the 
man in the pulpit and the deacon at once de- 
cide that religion (faith, hope, friendship, 
truth, and goodness) is dying. 

The “ copyright ” on religion is declining, 
— running out, as it were, — not religion. 

To be a man should be the main object in 
life, first, last, and all the time; this is real 
religion. The record of such is all there is 
worthy of recording. This can be achieved 
without any special creations of men. Man- 
created societies and institutions may help 
or assist in the construction of men, but these 
societies and institutions are not the thing 
itself, not first in life. It’s man only who 
issues a copyright. 


“ Our little systems have their day, 
They have their day and cease to be, 


138 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

They are but broken lights of Thee, 

And Thou, O Lord, art more than they.” 


Religion should not consist of swallowing 
unbelievable stories told by superstitious and 
ignorant men. 


The way to have more real belief in religion 
is to replace “ goblin ” stories by sensible 
stories. 


Parents who are anxious to develop honest 
manhood in their sons will not insist on the 
boys’ believing that which the ordinary sense 
of the parents refuses to accept. If they do 
insist, then they are simply building other 
hypocrites. 


If a boy has the inclination to read, let him 
read, but be sure to lead him into realms of 
thought; let him gain knowledge in his read- 
ing. To make him a thinker is the thing to 
do. 


To stop a boy eating green apples he should 
be given ripe ones. 


Just because a religious system of the past 
is old, is no argument for its continuation. 
We neither think, see, nor develop alike. We 
are all of us at different stages of evolution; 
every man believes as he sees mentally, and 
every interpretation is true to the man who 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


i39 


interprets. Humanity is climbing slowly to- 
ward the light. 

“ The savage that can scarce count four 
Worships a God that knows no more.” 

Forms, creeds, ceremonies, and rituals must 
change. To change and advance is the order 
of the universe. It is God’s way. Hope, 
firm-footed on an intellectual base, gives to 
us the eternal now. Eternity as much so 
now as in ages past and ages yet to be. 

Everyday life is a factor in our personality, 
and in our spirituality if we will only take ad- 
vantage of every hour, in our training toward 
a higher destiny, we move onward as we 
gain in knowledge. 

Religion is a personal private concern, each 
in his own tongue; a reasoning man will 
never claim a right but that he will accord a 
similar right to his fellows. 

Tennyson exclaims in “ In Memoriam ,, : 

“ I falter where I firmly trod, 

And falling with my weight of cares 
Upon the great world’s altar stairs 
That slope thro’ darkness up to God.” 

It is a never ending battle for the liberation 
of thought and its expression to grow out 
from the bondage of ignorance, superstition, 
and bigoted men. As mental vision increases 
by clearing the windows of the soul, super- 
stition decreases. 


140 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


It is a good idea to develop the soul, — or in 
other words, enhance its value, here and now, 
before worrying to any extent about saving 
it. 

Real, true, and helpful religion is an inspira- 
tion from all the forces, physical, mental, and 
spiritual; and to grow into a manly life there 
must be and there must exist a close relation- 
ship of every faculty of mind and body, each 
in harmony and in active operation one with 
the other. 

Mentality, — the resources of the human 
being, for health, happiness, mental, and 
spiritual unfoldment are enormous, but these 
must be studied, learned, and lived for to be 
made available and they cannot, in the pur- 
suance of a well-rounded life, be divorced one 
from the other. 

The prayer of Socrates : “ Oh ! Beloved Pan, 
and all ye other Gods of this place, grant me 
to become beautiful in the inner man, and 
that whatsoever outer things I possess, may 
be at peace with those within. May I have 
such store of gold as only the wise may bear, 
or employ/’ 

The inner soul of religion, love of God and 
fellow-man, is in developing the unseen 
spirit, in seeking deeper things than things 
external. The religion of the future will em- 
brace life and living, love and liberty, purity 
of purpose, intellectual manhood, permeated 
with spiritual growth, joy, and gladness. It 
will mean the welfare of humanity here on 
earth. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 141 

Mind and conscience, truth and goodness, 
are as necessary factors in human nature as 
the desire for food or for anything that money 
can buy, and if we would be real men, these 
higher attributes should have authority over 
our physical appetites and passions. 

Honesty, veracity, justice, self-sacrifice, and 
good will are not decorations tacked on man, 
but they constitute the real man himself, and 
these are the leaven in the soul of things giv- 
ing expression to the moral or developed 
spiritual life within the man physical. 

As to forms and ceremonies and details 
pertaining to an imaginary world after this 
one, these things can only be decided by 
every man for himself. Every man’s right 
to his belief, or to what he terms “ his re- 
ligion,” is mine, and should be yours to de- 
fend. 

Every man has a right to believe that which 
he believes, religiously or politically, and 
whether he be right or wrong, if he really 
believes that which he claims to believe, it 
can be helped only by the process of thinking. 

We cannot help believing that which we 
honestly believe. Some men say, “ Believe 
and be saved.” I prefer, “ Behave and be 
saved ” ; religion should mean the way of 
living, growing into a good character. 

It’s a matter of grade — it’s us to you, Mr. 
Man. 

If you have a so-called religion that bows 
your head and gives you the life and spirit 
of a culprit — as though skulking down a 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


142 

dark alley, trembling like a coward, wasting 
your time on your knees in fear, praying for 
mercy, you had better lift up your head, get 
up, and get out of the alley. Let the dead 
past bury its dead. Go into the open and 
get a religion of sunshine and outgrow the 
past. 

As the drop said to the rill: 

“ I’ll help you and you help me — 

We’ll make a brook and run to the sea.” 

Our conception of God, and where or in 
what form we worship, is a matter of grade, 
education, or of the development of brain 
cells. The confusion in life is not caused 
by many gods, it is of many minds and dif- 
fering lips in many men. 

If rightly understood, the whole of life is 
a source of joy and inspiration, and rest as- 
sured if you cannot find God in the knowable 
things of everyday life, you cannot find Him 
or religion at church on Sunday. 


A GOOD RELIGION 

Live to-day up to the very best that is in 
you, or to that which you know. 

To-morrow you will have more in you to 
live up to, and you will know more. Use 
your own brain every day — that’s what you 
have it for — it will work if you give it a 
chance. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


i43 


Each day you may increase your power 
and knowledge, until you become perfect in 
manhood. 

Such living makes for our own good and 
for the bettering of men all about us. 

“ I walk in the radiant glory of a newborn 
golden day, 

As full of calm fresh sunshine as the cloud- 
less skies of May, 

And my steps are light as zephyr, for my 
hope is bright as morn, 

And the glow of the day shall brighten in 
the light that is yet unborn.” 

Pure religion and undefiled before God 
and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless 
and widows in their affliction, and to keep 
himself unspotted from the world. 

— James i, 27. 

“ In my Father’s house are many man- 
sions,” and Jesus said, “ I go to prepare a 
place for you.” But it is well for all of us to 
understand we must prepare ourselves for 
the place. 

Do not criticise unkindly an artist or a 
sculptor upon his unfinished works. Be a man 
and a broad enough thinker not to judge the 
Creator by His undeveloped children. We 
have been sent here to develop, to expand, to 
grow into God-life. 

Man is only a tiny atom in the immensity 
of an unfathomable world, yea, worlds upon 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


144 

worlds, and man retards his progress and 
blinds his mental vision by vanity and hypoc- 
risy. 

Life, and what we term death, and the vast 
forever, are but parts of an infinite plan, and 
man is simply a part of the stupendous whole. 
The whole of creation is both beautiful and 
wonderful. Only weak or undeveloped minds 
are afraid to live or afraid to die. 


SCATTERED LEAVES AND FALLING 
FRUIT 

Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, 
Now green with youth, now withering on 
the ground; 

Another race the following Spring supplies — 
They fall successive, and successive rise. 

— Homer. 

We may naturally sorrow at the death of the 
young; premature death is disaster, like the 
flower broken at the stem ere it is fully grown, 
or as the tree fallen before it has reached 
mature development, or in other words, be- 
fore the mission of life is complete; yea, we 
may bow our heads in sorrow at these things. 
It is, however, unnatural, injurious to the liv- 
ing, and the dead know it not; it is simple 
folly to weep and wail when at the proper 
time and season, Death, the brother of Sleep, 
calm and peaceful, comes like a benediction 
to the aged man and woman when having 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


145 


reached the end of the journey on life’s rough 
and uneven road, happy, yet tired, and in need 
of rest, — surely, there is no need of weeping. 


“ When our work is done, ’tis best, 
Brothers, best, that we should go. 

I am weary, let me rest; 

I am weary, lay me low.” 

In the joyous spring we are filled with re- 
grets when we see the leaves scattered and 
strewn, the unripened fruit fall, even the fall- 
ing makes a dismal sound; but when in the 
autumn the harvest is ready for the reaping, 
the blessings are mellowed, the leaves are 
golden and brown, and the night shades are 
falling in purple twilight. It is but natural 
for the fruit to fall, the leaves to wither, and 
as they gently fall, one by one, to the bosom 
of Mother Earth, the gentle rustle of the 
leaves, the hushed falling of the fruit, is 
simply Nature’s own sweet song, — every 
sound contributing its part to a delightful, 
harmonious melody. 

This message, however, is not so much for 
those who remain and mourn, as it is for all 
of us while living, whether in golden youth 
or in the full strength of years. So that we 
may learn by our thought and by our reason 
that every heart-beat, every breath in each 
day and year, is hurrying the footsteps of 
each of us, at rapid pace, nearer and nearer 
the Fall of the year, the reaping time. 


146 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

“ When all the jarring notes of life 
Seem blending in a psalm, 

And all the angels of the strife 
Slow rounding into calm.” 

My love and hope is sent out to the living 
present, in all earnestness, to urge my broth- 
ers and sisters, men and women, not to 
neglect the kindly word, the loving deed, and 
the giving of the little flower here and now, 
while loved ones can hear and enjoy, see and 
appreciate, catch the perfume and breathe 
into the very soul the sweetness and tender- 
ness of the flowers of love. 

I would admonish all to remove from the 
mind the unfounded fear of what is called 
“ death.” The going out of this life is just 
as natural as being born into it, and may be 
better for us than the coming into it. At any 
rate, it cannot be worse; so don’t be afraid 
to take a chance when your time comes. Fear 
is man’s deadliest foe ! There never was, 
there never will be a Hell, except of our own 
creating. Fear is Hell. The question of this 
thing life, and whence comes it, has been 
asked from the beginning of time, and if 
there be a master of the show, He has not 
explained. We must grow, and the question 
is in itself solved. 

Scientists have exhausted their best ener- 
gies in an effort to comprehend life and pro- 
duce it, but their demonstrations have only 
proved that it cannot be made, even in the 
world’s most wonderful laboratories. We 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 147 

know that there must be an infinite force 
flowing like a current through all the myriad 
forms of life, and we as human beings pass 
from one experience to another. To weep 
over the dead past — our errors or mistakes — 
robs us of the joys of the present and curtails 
our possibilities of the future. 

Life cannot be destroyed or extinguished. 
It is one never-ending change, a ceaseless and 
beautiful panorama. “ God’s plans like lilies 
pure and white unfold.” 

This indisputable and ever-visible fact gives 
to every thinking personality a peaceful se- 
renity and an assured security irrespective of 
the questions of whence and whither, whether 
the light or the darkness will prevail. 

When we have enlarged our mental and 
moral vision, the ghosts and goblins of fear 
and superstition will have gone into oblivion. 
Ignorance is a limiting factor, remove it. 
Let the boundary of thought be as limitless 
as the shores of time. 


SOCRATES 

By Arthur Guiterman 

If Death be Sleep, is rest a thing to fear? 

If Death be Life, ’tis all that man holds dear. 
So we must part, my Crito, thou and I, 

Thy doom it is to live, and mine to die; 
Which fate is best? Ah, that is known 
To him who ruleth Fate, — to God alone. 


148 A MAN WORTH WHILE 


GOD IS LOVE, AND LOVE IS OF GOD 

It is not my purpose to criticise nor to 
attempt to disprove anyone’s belief nor to 
intrude any belief of mine upon anyone else. 
My one aim is to point the way to higher 
and nobler ideals, to more reasonable con- 
ceptions with clearer thinking and better liv- 
ing, mentally and morally — mankind must 
read life each for himself. 

God is love and love is of God. — Stop quar- 
reling. The glibness with which people talk 
about God is in keeping with their egotism 
and ignorance. Man is mortal. He has de- 
fined the Infinite in childish language and in 
ignorant terms of the finite. Because he is 
finite, he cannot conceive nor perceive in its 
entirety the Infinite Power of light and life, 
— God. 

Man debating the unanswerable question 
of the first cause or of God, the great unseen 
power or invisible force, back, in, and through 
this and millions of other worlds, is so ridic- 
ulous that, if such be possible, it becomes 
blasphemous. There is nothing more unbe- 
coming than to carry on such a contention. 
It is, to say the least, the silliest thing in 
the category of silly things, that little finite 
man can be engaged in. 

Poetess Wilcox says in her great poem: 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


149 


“ I AM 

“ Cease wondering why you came, 

Stop looking for faults and flaws, 

Rise up to-day in your pride and say, 

I am part of the First Great Cause. 

“ However full the world, 

There is room for an earnest man, 

It had need of me or I would not be. 

I am here to strengthen the plan.” 

Alice Cary, the beautiful American poetess 
— a divine soul — sang this song: 

“To find some sure interpreter 
My spirit vainly tries; 

I only know that God is love 
And know that love is wise.” 

Tennyson wrote beautifully: 

“ Flower in the crannied wall, 

I pluck you out of the crannies; 

Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 
Little flower — but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all, and all in all, 

I should know what God and man is.” 

We have wasted precious lives and precious 
time in quarreling and warring over poor, 
weak human conceptions of God. 

Mr. A describes his conception as to form, 


i 5 o A MAN WORTH WHILE 

shape, and attributes, and Mr. B describes 
his. 

Mr. A at once becomes very angry and 
calls Mr. B very ugly names because Mr. B 
differs in opinion. 

Mr. A proclaims with great gusto that his 
neighbor Mr. B doesn’t believe in a God, 
which it seems in Mr. A’s estimation makes 
an awful difference to God and the world. 

The truth of the matter very probably is, 
Mr. B does not believe in a God of Mr. A’s 
conception. 

Mr. B and Mr. A both believe in God. 
All men are a part of God, and God loveth 
all men. And all men love and believe in 
God, though there may be a wide divergence 
in their mortal perceptions. 

Conceit and prejudice are the twin demons 
in strutting man. 

“ Know thou thyself, presume not God to 
scan: 

The proper study of mankind is Man.” 


NO UNBELIEF 


By Edward Bulwer Lytton 

There is no unbelief; 

Whoever plants a seed beneath the sod, 

And waits to see it push away the clod, 

He trusts in God. 

Whoever says, when clouds are in the sky, 

“ Be patient, heart; light breaketh by and by,” 
Trusts the Most High. 

Whoever sees, ’neath winter’s fields of snow, 
The silent harvest of the future grow, 

God’s power must know. 

Whoever lies down in his couch to sleep, 
Content to lock each sense in slumber deep, 
Knows God will keep. 

Whoever says, “ To-morrow,” “ The Un- 
known,” 

“ The Future,” trusts the power alone 
He dares not to disown. 

The heart that looks on when the eyelids 
close, 

Who dares to live when life has only woes, 
God’s comfort knows. 


152 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


There is no unbelief; 

And day by day, and night, unconsciously, 
The heart lives by that faith the lips deny — 
God knoweth why. 


LOVE 

God is mysteriously precious and sublime, 
and when we have developed ourselves high 
enough in the scale of intelligence and reason 
to quit our trading in God and religion, we 
shall have higher ideals, purer worship, and 
a happy and peaceful humanity, rejoicing in 
and enjoying all of God’s blessings of life, 
earth, and heaven. 

Love is an attribute of Divinity, and the 
sweetest sentence ever written is that which 
says, God is Love. 

Coleridge’s lines are very appropriate: 

“ He prayeth well who loveth well, 

Both man and bird and beast, 

He liveth best who loveth best 
All things both great and small; 

For the dear God who loveth us, 

He made and loveth all.” 


OVER THE TRANSOM 

The pretty story of a mother sending her 
boy to ascertain whether or not the father 
was in his study is appropriately illustrative 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


i53 


of the thought I would send forth. The 
father was a literary worker and his duties 
often called him into the midnight hour. 

At the request of the mother the boy ran 
down the hallway and quickly returned with 
the glad message, “ Yes, Father's there.” 

The mother asked, “ Did you see him?” 
The boy answered, “ No, I didn’t see him, 
but I know he’s there.” The mother still 
questioned, “ How do you know? ” The boy 
replied, “ I saw the light over the transom.” 

We have only to look, to know that God 
is there — yea, everywhere. We may all of 
us, if we will, see the light over the transom. 


LOVE AND PEACE 

When love permeates the soul and con- 
trols the life of man, he then lives in harmony 
with the higher elements of human life, in a 
sphere where natural peace dwells which 
passeth understanding. 

It is then a simple thing to live and love, 
not to envy, not to behave selfishly; easier to 
smile than to frown at injury. It gives 
strength of mind not to be easily provoked — 
and courage to bear all things that may come 
to us, even in the midst of chaotic evil. 

The kingdom of God is at hand; if we live 
it, it is ours, anywhere and everywhere. The 
kingdom of God means developed souls of 
purity and enlightenment. It is not a place 
but a state of mind. 


i 5 4 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

No man has to seek God and happiness in 
the service of humanity. It is in itself essen- 
tial happiness and the highest liberty. 

These need no adornment, no reward. 
They are in and of themselves, the inner 
depths of the soul, — the thing itself. 

As to forms and ceremonies, books and 
creeds, business and big membership: 

“ Know this, that every soul is free 
To choose his life and what he’ll be. 

“ Intelligence and reason make us men, 
Take away these, — what are we then? ” 

Without intelligence there can be no man- 
hood; without freedom men are but slaves, 
and without reason the creature man is but 
an animal. 

Let us stop our bickerings. It is enough 
for us to recognize the power which gives us 
the refined guiding conscience, the sober rea- 
son, the love and constancy of a mother, the 
dimpled smile of a babe, the honest handclasp 
of a friend, the delicate tints and the perfume 
of the flowers, the sunlight of heaven, the 
rainbow of hope, and this beautiful world as 
a whole. These things all whisper to us of an 
invisible power. We may call the source 
from whence these blessings flow — God, and 
God is love. 

John, the beloved disciple of Jesus Christ, 
after many years of study under the best 
masters, stated repeatedly, God is Love. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


155 


Jesus said, “ A new commandment I give 
unto you, — that ye love one another.” Love 
one another, — this is a universal statute of 
three words which was the test made by 
Jesus, for He added, “ By this shall all men 
know that ye are My disciples, — if ye love 
one another.” This loving man from Naza- 
reth was surely a fraternalist. He begged 
His way from place to place and exclaimed 
in tones of anguish, “ The birds of the air 
have nests, the foxes have holes, but the Son 
of Man hath not where to lay his head.” 

We read that He performed a miracle for 
the feeding of the multitude who were hungry. 
He said, “ Feed the hungry.” Not the worthy 
hungry, not the organized hungry, not the 
pagan hungry, not the Christian hungry, not 
the clean hungry, but just — feed the hungry. 

Jesus Christ loved His brothers — all of 
them. He lived in the Kingdom of God. 

Love must lead for human needs. 

“ Behold, let us love one another, for love 
is of God; and every one that loveth is born 
of God and knoweth God” (I John iv, 7). 

“ To love and to be loved is the greatest 
happiness of existence” (Sydney Smith). 

“ If we love one another God dwelleth in 
us, and his love is perfected in us ” (I John 
v, 12). 

“ The wealth of a man is in the number of 
things which he loves and blesses ” (Car- 
lyle). 

“ The heart is not a treasury that is im- 
poverished by giving, but a power which is 


156 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

strengthened and enriched by loving ” (E. 
Charles). 

“ Of all earthly music, that which reaches 
the farthest into reason is the beating of a 
loving heart” (Beecher). 

Love alone is life, love which means broth- 
erhood all around, and justice forms the 
circle. 


Civilization is as an empty shell without 
love — love of life, and life is only found in 
love. 

Love is life’s end! an end, but never ending; 
All joys, all sweets, all happiness, awarding; 
Love is life’s wealth, (ne’er spent, but ever 
spending), 

More rich by giving, taking by discarding; 
Love’s life’s reward, rewarding in rewarding; 
Then from thy wretched heart fond care 
remove ; 

Ah! shouldst thou live but once love’s sweets 
to prove, 

Thou wilt not love to live, unless thou live 
to love. 

— Spenser. 

The loving, true, and earnest man looks in 
awe and wonderment at this majestic world; 
surrounded by millions of worlds he sees God 
in everything, first in men’s eyes, then in 
earth, in forests, in mountains, in rivers, in 
seas, and in babbling brooks. He looks be- 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 157 

yond the stars and from the depths of his 
soul wells forth the song: 

“ I know not where His islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air; 

I only know I cannot drift 
Beyond His love and care.” 

Heaven is where God is, and God lives and 
dwells in the hearts of men. His kingdom is 
at hand, — not in some far-away time and 
place, but here, in the eternal now, in the 
minds of the people, in humanity; and as we 
advance in knowledge, love, and truth, the 
nearer Heaven we bring ourselves. Unless 
a man lives and loves he is both lost and 
lonely all the days of his life. To be saved 
is to love and be loved. 


TWO MYSTERIES 
By Mary Mapes Dodge 

We know not what it is, dear, this sleep so 
deep and still; 

The folded hands, the awful calm, the cheek 
so pale and chill; 

The lids that will not lift again, tho’ we may 
call and call; 

The strange, white solitude of peace that set- 
tles over all. 

We know not what it means, dear, this deso- 
late heart pain; 

This dread to take our daily way and walk 
in it again; 

We know not to what other sphere the loved 
who leave us go, 

Nor why we’re left to wonder still, nor why 
we do not know. 

But this we know: Our loved and dead, if 
they should come this day, 

Should come and ask us “ What is Life? ” — 
not one of us could say. 

Life is a mystery as deep as ever death can be; 

Yet oh, how dear it is to us, this life we live 
and see! 


158 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


i59 

Then might they say, — those vanished ones, — 
and blessed is the thought, 

“ So death is sweet to us, beloved! tho’ we 
may show you naught; 

We may not to the quick reveal the mystery 
of death — 

Ye cannot tell us, if ye would, the mystery 
of breath.” 

The child who enters life comes not with 
knowledge or intent, 

So those who enter death must go as little 
children sent. 

Nothing is known. But I believe that God 
is overhead; 

And as life is to the living, so death is to 
the dead. 

1 

(This beautiful poem, “ The Two Mys- 
teries,” is taken from a little book, “ Poems 
and Verses,” by Mary Mapes Dodge, and is 
used by special permission of James M. 
Dodge.) 


THINK— POINTS 


Manly life, or what we term civilization, 
with all its hideousness, is not a failure, but 
it is evidently in its early stages of develop- 
ment. We cannot tell when or where or at 
what degree of attainment the first spark of 
divine life began in this creature man, neither 
can we fathom his destiny; it is enough to 
know that every phase of human life moves 
on and on into higher realms of happiness in 
the world within ourselves. 

The first question an individual should ask 
is, “ How can I grow toward manhood? ” 
I am sure you will find these pointers useful. 
Use them! 


Progression is salvation; non-progression 
is stagnation — death. During the unfolding 
or the building process of the race which has 
taken millions of years, and will take millions 
more, there are all kinds in the growing; so 
be prepared for any kind of experience, and 
be surprised at nothing. Keep yourself clean 
and pure, and march on and on. Keep your 
honor bright, your conscience clear and in 
tune with the infinite, trust in God and your- 
self; think for yourself, let the consequences 
follow; but be sure you have a thinker in 
operation so that you may think. Remem- 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 161 

ber, you are what someone else tells you to 
be, unless you think it over yourself. Life 
is what you make it, and it is especially what 
you think it. The world is badly in need of 
thinkers. 


THINK! 

“ The man who idly sits and thinks 
May sow a nobler crop than corn, 

For thoughts are seeds of future deeds, 

And when God thought the world was born.” 


If you expect to lift your head above the 
mists and fogs of ordinary animal life into 
the intellectual life of art and learning, the 
more “ don’ts ” you hear from the crowd, the 
more you must do. Keep a-going. It is very 
often the things we shouldn’t do, according 
to the other fellow’s say-so, that seem to 
make life worth the living. 

Set others a good example, by living square 
with your better self; live your own life and 
be as true as the compass in whatever direc- 
tion you may sail. 


In your upward climb, do not confound 
critics with knockers; there is not one in a 
thousand of the former, but there are mil- 
lions of the latter. Safest way — cut ’em all 
out. 


Admonish your family and your friends to 
never repeat to you any unkind chatter given 


162 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


out by thoughtless people or by a thoughtless 
press, which means the same. — Such stuff 
only retards your progress. 


Never listen to and avoid reading any story 
containing the elements of abuse and vilifica- 
tion of yourself, or your fellow man. It is 
poison to your soul. Don’t take it. If you 
do, the devil has a laugh coming, and it's on 
you. 


Most newspapers aim to make each edition 
a clamorous one. They must give the people 
what they want, or what it is supposed they 
want; not what they ought to have; the penny 
is the thing. “ ’Tis true, ’tis pity, and pity 
’tis ’tis true.” 


No man can avoid being a sinner if the 
judgment of the crowd is to be accepted as 
evidence. The world is overrun with self- 
appointed judges. You will waste precious 
time if you stop to explain. 


Never run or shout with a mob. A mob 
never thinks, hence it is never right. There 
is no crime that can justify the act of a mob, 
and there is no mob that can be justified by 
the commission of a crime. 


Be courageous and noble-minded; our own 
heart-promptings and not other men’s opin- 
ions form our lives. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 163 

Do not for a moment imagine that every- 
body has turned against you. This is a 
dangerous form of egotism. On lifers jour- 
ney one meets only a few persons of either 
what we may term the good or the bad, and 
we are neither bad enough nor good enough 
for everybody to play mean tricks upon us, 
or even to like us. 


There are in America about one hundred 
million souls. Subtract 99,999,990 and the 
balance will give you about the number who 
have any interest in you whatever. Just think 
of the extensive field for development we have 
in our own country! 


We recognize the fact that it is but little 
any man can do toward making this world a 
happier and better home for mankind to dwell 
in, and, having become fully convinced 
through experience and study that all of our 
difficulties, all of our troubles, and all of our 
misunderstandings are born and nurtured in 
our weaknesses, our ignorance and selfish- 
ness in and of man, it is a self-evident fact 
that those men who choose for their depart- 
ment of labor the foundation-work upon 
which the structure of civilization must rest, 
— namely, lifting up the fallen, cheering the 
discouraged, assisting in the development of 
a thinking, fraternal manhood — are not lauded 
by the crowd, not feted in pomp and show, 
nor do they have “ calls ” to more lucrative 


1 64 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

positions. For such men there are no special 
offerings. They were not called, they are 
natural, they had to be. Their “ labor ” is 
in the ranks, down among the people; it is 
plain and unvarnished, has no pretty colors. 
They are not heralded, nor held up to the 
gaze of the populace; they are as the founda- 
tion of a castle, a support of the whole struc- 
ture of human living. Therefore, they are 
naturally unnoticed by hurrying, surging 
humanity — the great mass of men and women 
who journey carelessly on and on. 

The singer is forgotten, only the song re- 
mains. 


My brother, be good, be gentle and kind, 
Let no one reap sorrow through you, 

Then this world is heaven. Angels are here, 
And conscience will pilot you through. 


There may be tides in the affairs of men 
that if taken at the flood lead on to fortune, 
but there are no tides nor floods rushing on to 
fortune or glory in clean, honest manhood. 
These things are as a steady stream flowing 
gently on in our everyday life and all the 
time. 


It is not reputation you should seek. This 
is a bauble, but character is necessary if you 
would be a man; Seek not glory; seek honor 
within yourself. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 165 

Public opinion is similar to a gas-filled 
balloon; with the smallest slit, real or imagi- 
nary, she comes down with a thud. 


Opinion, the blind goddess of fools, foe 
To the virtuous and only friend to 
Undeserving persons. — Chapman. 


Public clamor may be likened unto a full 
steamed locomotive, unmanned and running 
amuck, snorting, ripping, and tearing as it 
speeds on its awful way. Its terminal means 
destruction and death. He is a hero who 
can climb into the box and turn the switch. 


Only small souls gossip and chatter. Big 
souls haven’t time to waste on “ much ado 
about nothing.” 


The conceited man has no reason for being 
so. Bed and board are all man can have in 
the physical world. 


Never run in debt; if in debt you are in 
danger. No man can be sole proprietor of 
himself when in debt. You are owned by 
your creditors, hunted by wolf agents and 
collectors ; angered by insulting letters. There 
is only one way to escape or to get even with 
your “ owners ” — pay your debts if it takes a 
lifetime, and discharge your “ master ” and 
be free. 


i66 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


When you see and read a big sign, “ Your 
credit is good,” don’t you believe it; it’s not 
so. Remember the ditty: 

“Won’t you walk into my parlor? said the 
spider to the fly.” Well, you know what the 
spider said to the fly, don’t you? Then keep 
out of debt. 


DEVIL EPISTLES 

Anonymous letters? Oh, yes, you’ll re- 
ceive them. The man who builds a character 
makes foes. Peevish people will buzz about 
you; let them not worry you; rid your mind, 
your hand, and your heart of all such things. 

Take no interest in any man because he 
seems to be an enemy. Never recognize him 
or her as such. If you do, you are contribut- 
ing to the foolishness. Never allow an unde- 
veloped creature to trouble you. 


To be a man embodies thought, reasoning, 
and reflective powers. To possess them and 
not use them, man is a fool to himself. To 
not possess them, he is a cipher. 


POLITICS 

The more absolutely sincere and conscien- 
tious a man may be, the more adverse the 
masses will be to him. 

If one wishes to live in peace and render 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 167 

real service to humanity, I would advise, do 
not seek public office. 

In what is termed politics, it matters not 
how honest or sincere one may be, a man 
places himself in a position to be betrayed by 
those whom he thought were friends and men, 
to be called ugly names, and to be a target 
of abuse and vilification. Much of the en- 
vironment is depressing in character and ex- 
ceedingly bad on reputation. A man does 
not lose his power for good by confining his 
efforts to private life. It is riot necessarily 
the man in the office who is the power; it is 
the good citizen, the thinker “ behind the 
throne,” who guides the ship. Only men 
who are cunning and devoid of sensitiveness, 
or those possessing the spirit and coarseness 
of a pugilist, can be very happy in politics. 

Should a man go into political life for any 
other purpose than lower self — money, empty 
honors, baubles, etc., and continue to be 
true to the higher thought, he is surely on 
the road to sainthood, and for his manliness 
and devotion to his country he is deserving 
of the good will and the sympathy of the few 
thinkers in any country. 


Two Years in Washington: 

No man, it seems to me, after living in the 
shadow of the great dome of the Capitol for 
two years, hearing, seeing, reading and 
studying the lives and works of politicians, 
Senators, Congressmen, with other grades of 
office-seekers and office-holders, can avoid 


i68 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


having forced upon his mind the conclusion 
that “ heart,” “man to man,” “humanity,” 
“ sentiment,” and “ higher thoughts ” per- 
taining to questions of right and wrong, are 
in many cases secondary. The master 
thought seems to be “ Down him,” or “ Down 
them ” ; it is, to say the least, too much man 
conquering man, and not enough “ Come let 
us reason together.” 


The trouble with so many of our legisla- 
tors is that they are afraid of their heads. 
Their actions are indicative of which they 
consider of highest value, “ heads ” or 
“ duty ” ; they aim to retain their “ heads.” 


Principles and honest convictions should 
be the forces, or the bases, back of public life, 
with truth, argument, and reason as the 
weapons of appeal and defense; in fact this 
should be the case in any arena of thought. 
To-day it is not so, but, to the contrary, 
individual abuse and vile language are the 
means used to advance one’s interest in cam- 
paigns and in various avenues of our public 
life. 


FAME 

It is just as easy to draw conclusions as to 
the goodness and character of men from the 
abuse heaped upon them as it is to draw con- 
clusions from the praise showered over them. 
The first is the safest rule. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 169 

Ideal men are generally found in the ranks 
of the abused and vilified. It is the way of 
the world — cannonade in life, canonize after 
death. 

“With fame, in just proportion, envy grows; 
The man who makes a character makes 
foes; 

Slight peevish insects ’round a genius rise, 
As a bright day awakes a world of flies. 
With haughty malice, but with feeble wing, 
They show they live, they flutter, and they 
sting; 

But, as by depredations wasps proclaim 
The fairest fruits, so these the fairest name.” 


It’s great to be a detective, eh? 

“Yes, greater than to be a king” — I 
guess so ! 

If we have catchers of men, we must have 
men to catch. It surely is very interesting 
to many persons to listen to or read the won- 
derful stories telling how many men (his 
brother men) the detective has sent over the 
road to prison. Personally I prefer to hear 
and read of how many men have been kept 
from going to prison by and through a 
brother man pointing a better and safer way 
for his brother man to travel, rather than to 
read of how many men we have been able 
to send “ over the road ” to hell. 


Someone has said “ All is fair in love and 
war.” Nothing is fair only that which is 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


170 

honest either in love or war, anywhere, or 
in anything. 

If “ Uncle Sam ” would discharge one 
thousand of his detectives, spotters, and al- 
lurers, and in their stead put in the field 
one hundred teachers of true manhood, giving 
lessons in how to be men, the results would 
be gloriously beneficial and wonderfully 
economical. 


Men, do your duty if it costs you your 
head, literally or figuratively. The valley of 
fear and humiliation is not yours to journey 
in if you act the man, if you do your duty. 
It is better to be a dead man than a live 
“ scrub.” 


A thinking man is never tagged, he is 
master of himself, and his sunny face tells 
the story. The eye is the window in which 
is mirrored the soul of bond or free. 


To be normal means life; to be abnormal 
means death; keep balanced or you lose out 
with every breath you draw. 


This world is a very unhappy place for 
nearly everybody. If we cannot make every- 
body happy, we can at least help a few on the 
way. 


There is only one safe way to go, and that’s 
the honest way. The fatal step along the 
crooked path is the first step. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 171 

Go away from temptation and go fast, 
never mind who laughs; and should you lose 
your coat, you can easily get another coat. 


Our language, or our vocabulary of words, 
tells of our breeding, and especially does it 
reveal our environment; associate or run with 
slangy hoodlums, and our conversation will 
jingle with the language of hoodlums. 


KINDNESS 


TRY IT 

When “ wealthy people,” “ special people,” 
and “ superior people ” once learn and become 
cognizant of the fact that the “ ordinary peo- 
ple ” (human beings) deeply appreciate being 
spoken to or talked to, then these classes of 
“ superior people ” will surely speak the 
kindly word of greeting when they meet the 
“ ordinary people ” on life’s highway by salut- 
ing with a “ Good morning,” “ Hope you are 
well,” success, happiness, etc. They will soon 
discover that such a simple action followed 
out in daily life on this line of investment will 
repay them tenfold, and thus open up an 
avenue, a source of happiness, to a genuine 
popularity never before dreamed of, to say 
nothing of the pleasure derived by “ the ordi- 
naries ” spoken to, or of the good generally 
accruing from such kindnesses extended in 
everyday life to the “ common people.” Try 
it; it won’t cost you a cent. 


HOW ABOUT IT? 

It is difficult to comprehend how “ a Chris- 
tian” can be a millionaire and remain such, 
and be happy in mind, when people all about 
172 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


173 

him are living in ignorance and squalor and 
are compelled to exist on a few cents a day. 
Christ wondered at such men and such liv- 
ing, and when a young man had enumerated 
his virtues to Him and asked, “ What lack 
I yet?” Well, I would suggest that for the 
answer you read the twenty-first verse in the 
19th chapter of St. Matthew. Bible. 


Say, Mr. Master Foreman: 

Have you ever tried bossing or directing 
your men with kind words mixed with an 
occasional smile? “ Never, sir; no!” Well, 
I didn’t think you had; it is not customary, I 
know. I wish you would try it even for one 
day, and then note the different atmosphere 
all about you, and just see how your “ broth- 
ers ” would accomplish things. Why, don’t 
you know both master and man would be 
happy? Try it. 


Heredity may have some influence in the 
making of a man, but environment is the im- 
portant factor. A child nurtured and reared 
in a hovel of vileness, uncleanliness, low, vul- 
gar, and depraved, will be very apt to live 
and remain on the level of the hovel, and no 
higher. Environment is the foundation of 
clean, pure, humane life. 


In developing one’s mental activities and 
in specialization on any phase or subject of 
life, do not at any stage imagine for a mo- 
ment that you know it all. Avoid becoming 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


174 

narrow, that it may not detract from the 
value of your knowledge, or from taking a 
broad view of testimony on all sides of 
every question. 

One may know all that he is capable of 
holding, but it’s the safest way not to be too 
positive of the other man’s capacity. 


Ignorance gives us the only darkness. 
When the darkness is dispelled there will be 
no slavery and no ignorance. 


When men think as well as they work, then 
will be the dawning of a new day. 


What is done for you, you must do it for 
yourself. 


To all men be courteous, to all be polite, 

A frank manly confidence show; 

But remember, if always you wish to be right, 
Don’t “ tie ” to a man you don’t know. 


DO NOT CARRY FIREARMS! 


Do you know that one cannot purchase a 
pistol or a deadly weapon without the thought 
of killing, and you cannot have a pistol in 
the house nor carry one on your person with- 
out it being a continuous suggestion of kill- 
ing someone? — People generally find or get 
that which they are looking for in the line 
of trouble, and rest assured that erelong the 
devil, suggestion — through the darkened 
passageways of accident, impulse, discourage- 
ment, or intention — gets in its awful, deadly 
work, and the individual life becomes a phys- 
ical ruin and a nervous wreck, cast away upon 
the stony shores of misery and despair with- 
out even the faintest hope of cheer or rescue. 

If this devilish instrument of death is 
turned upon yourself by your own self, you 
rob yourself of what life itself holds most dear 
— human life. The result is an irreparable 
loss, for the life taken cannot be restored nor 
replaced, and for this crime of crimes against 
one’s self you alone are responsible to your 
creator, your God. 

Should you take the life of a fellow human 
being, intentionally or otherwise, irrespective 
of written laws or unwritten laws or the judg- 
ment of courts and men, you are forever after, 
in mind and in fact, a culprit with head bowed 
175 


176 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

in shame and sorrow, an outcast, a wanderer 
upon the earth, distorted in mind, with a con- 
science bereft of its sunshine and its calm; 
and wherever you may journey, on land or 
on sea, waking or sleeping, the pale, bony 
finger of accusation and remorse will be for- 
ever pointing at the wreck of your former 
self. 

And in the words of Poe: 

“ Leave my loneliness unbroken, 

Quit the bust above my door. 

Take thy beak from out my heart, 

And take thy form from off my door. 

Quoth the Raven, Nevermore ! ” 

“ Thou shalt not kill.” 

It is better to be killed than to kill your 
fellow man. 


If you do not want your boy to be a “ gun- 
man/’ a killer, why suggest it by giving him 
toy pistols, guns, etc., to play with? Sug- 
gestion and environment build either the good 
man or the gunman. 


Parents, should your boys go wrong, do 
not have yourselves to blame for it. 


We judge all things in nature by their ap- 
pearance— the inner by the outer; therefore 
it is well to have a little scientific sense to be 
able to judge the grades as we meet or come 
in contact with them in life. Our study is 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 177 

mankind. In man the face tells what a man 
has been. The head tells, to a very great 
extent, what he may be or what he might 
have been. 

The spirit in the oak, or the life principle, 
is different or has a different expression from 
that in the willow or the hickory. The spirit 
of a dove cannot be found in the form of an 
alligator. The form of a bulldog contains the 
mental attributes of the bulldog’s nature, and 
surely no one who has any thought power at 
all would think for a moment that the high 
forehead and intelligent eye of the shepherd 
dog is indicative of the malignant ferocity or 
the bloodthirstiness of the bulldog. As we 
are dealing with the different phases of the 
life principle in men and the various outward 
trappings, it is a useful thing to know them 
when we meet them. 


It is right and good to like all men, but 
none too much. Help them to grow is what 
we should do. 


Don’t “ tie ” to a man with a loosely hung 
jaw, whose chin drops, mouth generally open; 
it’s an indication of weakness — a weakling. 


Do not make an intimate acquaintance of a 
man who has a roof-shaped head. 

Do not trust your reputation nor your 
pocketbook with the man who trips on his 


178 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

toes, or, in other words, walks like a cat on 
hot bricks. 

There are two evil breeders in human life 
— namely whisky and wealth; both carry the 
disease known as “ big-head.” 

With the first there is a hope that the 
“loon” may get sober; but with the latter, 
there is no hope. 


Keep clear of the man who has a pear- 
shaped head inverted. See it as though hang- 
ing on a tree. 


You will come to grief if you become very 
friendly with a man who shakes hands with 
you — “ like that ” — a living dead one. 


Never make a confidant of a man who 
doesn’t look you in the eye — a crooked mind, 
sure. 

Do not waste your time with a man who 
continually boasts of his ancestors. It’s a 
hundred to one that’s all he has to boast of. 
It’s a dead issue. 


To be intoxicated either with whisky, 
wealth, or power, one is becoming a madman. 


Remember : 

“ The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 
And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave, 
Await alike the inevitable hour. 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.” 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 179 

Do not enter into argument with a stupid 
man; neither side is ever convinced, and all 
about you become ruffled. Undeveloped men 
do not reason; they call or shout ugly names. 


In the race. 

If Bill Bills gets ahead of you and you can 
pay only for what you have got and not for 
what you are getting, it’s a bad handicap; 
it’s ten to one against you on winning the 
race. Better stop getting. 


The rumbling wheels of a truck on a peb- 
bled road is better music and carries more 
good than an insincere prayer. 


It matters not how authentic the priest or 
how eloquent and well printed the prayer, it 
is valueless unless the inner soul back of it 
is afire with enthusiasm and earnest truth. 


It is said that the English grammar gen- 
erously gives us twenty-six letters, which in 
combination form 690,313 words blended into 
sentences numbering to infinity. 


If to believe that everybody but myself or 
my party will be damned is to be religious, 

then I’ll be d if I believe it, and I am 

not religious. 


If you have sunshine in your soul, you 
need but little wealth in your pocket. 


i8o A MAN WORTH WHILE 

If you weep, weep for the living. 

If you seek heaven, seek it here on earth. 


One cannot be a good egg and a bad egg 
at the same time. 


Man is the only animal that drinks without 
being thirsty. 


Place a plug of tobacco on a rock in the 
street and a four-legged pig will never 
touch it. 


There are many men who are simply board- 
ing with their wives. 


Next in rudeness to the man who gives no 
heed when spoken to is he who fails to answer 
an answerable letter. 


“ To read without reflecting is like eating 
without digesting.’^ — Burke. 


There is only one way to succeed in life, 
and that is, to be honest with yourself, true 
to the inner consciousness of the real man 
within yourself, true to your neighbors in 
little things, whether in business or in the 
amenities of everyday life. 


Patriotism: 

Patriotism consists of a trinity of loves: — 
namely, love of home, love of truth, and love 
of country; cultivate, guard well, and blend 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 181 

in purity the first two loves, and the last one 
is cared for; your patriotism will then be as 
deep as the depths of the ocean, as lofty as the 
highest pinnacle, and as broad and everlasting 
as earth itself. It will live till 

“ The sun grows cold, 

And the stars grow old, 

And the books of the Judgment Day unfold.” 


“ Weak is that throne, and in itself unsound, 
Which takes not solid virtue for its ground.” 


“ Not in the clamor of the crowded street, 
Nor in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, 
But in ourselves is Triumph or defeat.” 


Creeds and superstitions are dying out. 
We need more deeds, less creeds; more reli- 
gion in the heart, less silly forms on the sur- 
face. 


I believe in fairness here, now, and all the 
time, and to be fair we must be honest. 


If in the course of your career a critic 
should come into your life, he will help you. 


DON’T FOOL YOURSELF 

Nature holds each individual personally re- 
sponsible for his health and happiness. Ruin 
your health by overwork to please a master, 


182 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


and it is not the master, but yourself, who 
will have to pay the penalty in suffering. 


“ Be firm, one certain element in luck 
Is genuine solid old Teutonic pluck.” 


ALL THE SAME 

Every man — 

Who does his best 

And lives to help his fellowman 

Is never a failure. 

And — 

Whether termed as high or low 
Or rich or poor, at last 
He arrives at the same door of 
Everyman. 


Ideas planted to-day will to-morrow spring 
forth into life and eventually grow into uni- 
versal thoughts, blessing the world long after 
we have passed away. 


The greatest poverty is that of intellect. 


Be a student in God’s universe — physical, 
mental, spiritual. 

COWARDS 

Many men leading evil lives, who are slaves 
to vice, simply walking bundles of bad habits, 
skulk behind the shroud of heredity and lay 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 183 

at the tomb of their grandmother all the 
faults that deface them. 


Whatever we have received from our an- 
cestors is only a fraction of what we are or 
what we may become. 


Don’t buy flowers when you need flour. 
You can see and catch the perfume of flowers 
in fields, in parks, in gardens, and in your 
home window, without cost and without de- 
stroying the flowers. 


Don’t pay two dollars for a seat at an opera 
when you can buy one for fifty cents where 
you can hear as well as in the costly one. 
It’s the opera you go to hear and see, is it 
not? 

Don’t try to break into society — nothing 
in it. Cultivate society in your heart, your 
mind, and your home, and you have something 
worth while without breaking into. 


There is a deep gulf that cannot be spanned 
existing between the friendship of a rich man 
and that of a poor man. Try to span it and 
it will be wrecked in the bogs of humiliation. 


Don’t try to keep pace with a rich man. 
If you do, the jail or the poorhouse will get 
you. 

It’s not the miles we travel, it’s the pace 
that kills. 


184 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

We have schools of learning — in law, in 
languages, in sciences, in the arts, etc.; but 
the important feature of all learning — the edu- 
cation creating honest men, teaching them 
their relationship to their fellows, how to live 
as men should live — has been neglected. 


The Golden Rule has been reversed to read, 
“ Do to him what he would do to you, but do 
him first.” Hence we have a race of cun- 
ning traders. 


The world boasts of civilization, but it's 
ever so far away. We cannot honestly claim 
a civilization, for it is not possible until the 
people are advanced so that a woman may 
walk out on the street at any time without 
fear of molestation. 


Not until the gentleman collecting fares in 
a public conveyance does not have to ring up 
and tell the crowd he has taken in a five-cent 
piece that doesn’t belong to him to prevent 
him stealing it; not until it is a safe proposi- 
tion to retire at night without barricading the 
doors of your home; not until one may leave 
at least a door mat in safety on the front 
step without chaining it; not until we have no 
necessity of engaging our best and strongest 
physical men to parade the streets with a 
hickory club, trained physically and ready at 
a moment’s notice to club a fellow being, who 
deserves it, into unconsciousness; not until 
humankind are not made by masters into 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 185 

automatons — grinding out their lives for a 
mere sustenance — and their dwelling place a 
hovel; not until humankind know the mean- 
ing of manhood, are we justified in “ tooting 
our horns ” about our glorious civilization. 


Should you meet a man strutting like a 
peacock, endeavoring to prove by his con- 
duct that he is made of special matter, of 
finer dust than ordinary men, and that an 
extra kind of blood — blue blood — courses 
through his veins; that the universe and other 
planets and the skies were made for him, 
don't take him seriously. Just smile — that's 
his “ bug " — common dust and red blood in 
humankind are just the same. Any other 
kind of dust or color of blood exists only in 
a diseased imagination. 


However serviceable a man may be, dis- 
tinction is a worthless badge. He will be 
forgotten and neglected by the crowd in his 
declining years. Comfort and consolation 
for old age come from within — not from with- 
out. 

He who contributes to the elevation and 
betterment of humankind by developing 
thought-power and building up the general 
moral tone radiates the sunlight of eternal 
life. 

Think that day lost whose low descending sun 
Views from thy hand no noble action done. 

— Jacob Bobart. 


i86 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


Twin curses : — Extreme wealth and ex- 
treme poverty. Man’s real self is lost in 
either one. 


The invisible life-source is a wireless sys- 
tem of communication with wonderlands ; 
revelations are flowing in and out all the time 
and everywhere. The receptive quality of the 
instrument — self — makes for good or bad the 
incoming and outgoing messages. 

Be in tune with the best and the highest; 
and the highest and the best are interchanged. 


“Life is mostly froth and bubble; 
Two things stand like stone; 
Kindness in another’s trouble — 
Courage for your own.” 


We must not restrict the personal oppor- 
tunity to investigate, or we close the door of 
achievement. 

The gospel of truth is progressive. 


Daniel Webster said: 

“ Those who do not look upon themselves 
as a link connecting the past with the future 
do not perform their duty to the world.” 


An honest man is never insulted nor 
slighted. An inferior man can’t insult or 
slight him, and a superior man won’t. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 187 

Think of it — change your opinions, and 
you are compelled to change your associates. 
It i§ laughable, but it is the truth. 

Let us be thinking men and change these 
conditions. 


Many men think it shows wonderful brain 
power to accumulate a fortune; a wonderful 
thing to keep a store and buy beans at four 
cents a pound and sell them for six. I don’t 
think so. I want to tell you it’s a great deal 
easier to make a money fortune than to make 
a magnificent selfhood. 


If your name is Jones and you work under 
the complete domination of Smith for any 
number of years — say, over two — change 
your name to Smith. You have lost out; 
Smith has gobbled your individuality, your 
initiative. Jones is simply a dead man walk- 
ing about. 


BORROWING 

Go to friends for advice; 

To women for pity; 

To strangers for charity; 

To relatives for nothing. 

— Spanish proverb. 

Every honest, law-abiding citizen should 
concern himself with the evil conditions ex- 
isting in our country. 


188 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

Listen to other people’s advice and digest 
whatever they may say; then think for your- 
self and use that advice that appears to you 
to be the best for you. 


The world needs men of thought and feel- 
ing, of faith and meditation, not of fear and 
superstition. Men of deeds, not of creeds; 
men who believe and act in and for the eternal 
now. 


Sensual pleasures, fame, and riches are not 
securities of happiness; aiming and working 
for the attainment of permanent good of all 
men is the only inexhaustible source. 


The happiness of Jack is not a bit more 
important than the happiness of John. 


In all your troubles, trials, and vicissitudes 
never lose sight of the majesty of manhood. 


To make and hold a lifelong friendship, 
both parties must be big enough mentally to 
overlook the petty differences that are inevita- 
ble between men. 


There are only a few, men or women, who 
realize the inward happiness of a life spent 
in seeking to benefit others. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


189 


BE HONEST 

In social and domestic matters be sincere. 
Do not practice yourself that which you con- 
demn in others. There is far too much de- 
ception among young people, especially dur- 
ing courtship. A young man enters the pres- 
ence of an attractive woman with a heart as 
free as an unmated bird; he leaves it a cap- 
tive. It should be beneath the dignity of a 
high-souled man or woman to trifle with those 
feelings which are as sacred as the love of a 
mother or the virtue of a sister. The heart 
of the man is an open book to the heart of 
the woman. Deception on the part of either 
is at once unkind, contemptible, and silly. 
Be honest! Be honest!! Be honest!!! 


It is not always words repeated that con- 
vey the deep thought of the soul; i.e., a man 
says “ I donT like poetry.” You may rely 
upon it, his aim was to conceal his real self* 
He should have said, “ I do not know how to 
read poetry.” 


Do not confess your weaknesses by saying 
“ I don’t like poetry, I don’t like art.” Hold 
your tongue and begin to look about you and 
think, commit a few lines to memory every 
day — well, make it every week — and then re- 
view every Sunday morning. Just think of 
it! There are fifty-two weeks in a year. 


igo A MAN WORTH WHILE 

Think of the height to which one may climb 
or what may be accomplished in ten years. 

“ Hitch your wagon to a star.” 


No man can think without words. Then 
shape your thoughts with the choicest. 


To know how to read well opens the golden 
gates of a universal college and forms a 
union between old worlds and new. 


A good reader with brains is able to meas- 
ure the heights and depths of human achieve- 
ment. He continually drinks at the fountain 
of divine revelation. 


Good reading is the gateway into a new life 
of hope and promise. 


Make of yourself a good conversationalist; 
it will lead you out of the basement into the 
parlor. 

Nobody cares for an ass — only an ass. 


In all phases of life, art, religion, litera- 
ture, and politics, two masters cannot be 
served. 

There can be no charm in any person with- 
out intelligence. A dullard has no charm. 


A person who thinks only of self robs him- 
self of a great subtle power. Selfishness de- 
stroys magnetism. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 191 

There are only a few who really enjoy the 
divine arts — the higher thinking life. If you 
are not one of the few, it’s your own fault. 
Get busy. Time is fleeting. 


WEAKLINGS 

There are too many do-nothings in the 
world — too many weaklings. 

There is a type of young womanhood with 
no higher ambition that that of dress — but- 
terflies, frail, beautiful— a mere passing de- 
light, creatures of fripperies, follies, and as 
helpless as babes. 

There are young men well matched for 
these, rich but idle, some of them dissipated, 
even before the beard begins to sprout. 
Their object in life is but to kill time. Ere- 
long they marry and live on “ dad’s ” money 
until overtaken by misfortune; necessity then 
forces them to unwilling toil or the only al- 
ternative, degradation and misery. 


Brother man, if you are employed by or 
become acquainted with a man you fear, re- 
move the fear at once, or you will lose your 
individuality and become a slave. If you 
cannot remove the fear, remove yourself ; 
there is plenty of room for you; the world is 
a big one, and time is precious. 


Ask any man of prominence you meet if 
he is in favor of war and he quickly answers, 


192 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


no; but he carries a gun and advocates more 
Dreadnoughts with the latest devices for kill- 
ing men. He knows that civilization is yet 
but a dream. 


Care and trouble bring out the real worth 
in a man. No one ever amounted to very 
much in this world unless he had to; ad- 
versity makes him want to. 


There are faults based on charity which are 
injurious only to one’s self; in most cases 
these are virtues. 


The world will never give you any credit 
until you are a “ worldly ” success ; then it 
will lavish you with a thousand per cent, 
more than you are entitled to, but don’t get 
excited. Keep your head level when all 
about you are making theirs oblong or 
crooked. 


There is no one in the world that is better 
than you should be! 


“ There’s life alone in duty done 
And rest alone in striving.’"’ 


MONEY 

Get all the money you can honestly, but 
do not regard it as the highest good. Do not 
address the dollar as Almighty. Do not 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


i93 

think of gold as divine, as though it had a 
sort of metallic omnipotence. An upright 
character is greater than money. Though 
banks may fail and bring ruin to thousands, 
he who has this can never lose all. Though 
he be stripped like the tree, of its leaves, by 
the wind, in a storm, he can never be struck 
as with lightning which destroys. 

All that he can lose is a drop — there is an 
ocean in reserve. He is rich in the possession 
of an untrammeled mind, rich in the capacity 
for enjoyment of simple pleasures without 
satiety, and common life without feverishness, 
rich in that holy love which makes the wear 
and tear of life seem unlike the convict’s 
tramp on the world’s vast treadmill; but like 
a luminous ascent to the very gates of heaven. 

A man is worth not what he has, but what 
he is. Worth is worship, but no man should 
be worshiped for his dollar. A man may be 
a millionaire, but a bankrupt in morals. The 
grandest prizes are the heart’s own approval, 
the testimony of a clear conscience, the affec- 
tion and esteem of one’s fellows, health of 
body and soul, a well-balanced mind, a suf- 
ficiency for the essential purposes of life. 
These prizes are within the reach of all. 

A swelling of the muscles is indicative of 
weakness — same with the head. 


The man with a diseased imagination is a 
humming humbug, and humbug juice is the 
only medicine craved by a humbug. 


194 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

The desire for riches is a bauble; to be com- 
fortable is all there is to enjoy. 


If you can’t go into business without rob- 
bing your fellow man by underpay, keep out 
of it. A thief is a thief, under whatever name 
or guise he works. 

If you are “ crooked,” put yourself in a 
strait-jacket of positive rules and straighten 
up. 

The conceited or most self-opinionated 
man is always the most unjust in his judg- 
ments. 


The man who condemns another man on 
what “ they say ” shall some day receive the 
measure he meted to his brother. 


In all civilized life a captain or a leader is 
absolutely necessary. A crowd cannot run 
a ship or a nation in safety. Call him what 
you will — king, president, boss, chairman, 
leader, or mogul — we must have him. It is 
the duty of every citizen to combine his best 
reasoning and clearest judgment in the selec- 
tion of a president or a boss. Select a good 
one is the thing to do. A thinker will not 
abuse him, but will lend his aid to help him. 

It matters little whether or not your name 
be carved on stone for men to read. Get 
your promptings from God, the invisible 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


195 

source. Then give invisible service. Do 
your work is the thing to do. 


Cut out of your life these words and their 
consequences: master, servant, overwork and 
underpay. 


The man who robs himself of health and 
nerve force by overwork will have to pay the 
penalty for his wrongdoing sooner or later. 
Nature’s forces are never bribed; the “ gov^ 
ernor ” is an immutable law. 


Never be cajoled into being a slave by writ- 
ers who are paid for urging you on. This 
makes the master and the writer laugh and 
grow fat; it makes the man poor, and causes 
his life to be one of toil, sorrow, and suffering. 


Be true to your conscious self — give an 
honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. 
If this rule is not lived up to, then the master 
robs the man and the man robs himself. This 
devilishness of overwork and underpay among 
men has caused all the troubles of the past 
and of the present. 


There is not a man in the world who has 
a greater right — he earns it — to be here than 
he who toils. 


One year of honesty in this world would 
give us a taste of heaven, and we would want 
more. 


i 9 6 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

The real man is not yet discovered. Men 
to-day are as good as they know how to be; 
they must know right from wrong before 
they can be men. 

It takes more years than threescore and 
ten to develop a real man, and especially so 
without a concerted effort. 


We cannot expect much headway until an 
educational system is established for the cul- 
tivation of man — a soul of truth and honor. 


Don’t worry about owning a castle; home 
is the place to live. 


WHY? 

“ Why does an ass prefer thistles to grass, 

Is a puzzle to many, no doubt; 

But the answer comes swift as a flash from 
the skies, 

And if it’s not witty, it is not unwise; 

The brute turns away with contempt from 
the grass, 

For the plain simple reason, because he’s 
an ass.” 

“ Why does not the fool prefer virtue to vice, 
When one is so vile and the other so nice? 
The answer we find by the very same rule — 
The fool prefers vice just because he’s a 
fool.” 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


197 


DON’T BE A FISH OR A SHARK 

Never attempt to get something for noth- 
ing, either in business or in games of chance. 
If you do you are either a fraud or a fool; 
you are dishonest, and you’ll get the worst 
of it. Everything that is good for something 
costs something. However, should you resolve 
while you have a “ crooked ” mind to be a 
“ smarty ” by attempting to catch the other 
“ crooked ” mind and he “ hooks ” you, then 
for your own sake don’t wriggle or squeal; by 
all means put forth one grain of manhood. Re- 
member the losing “ sucker ” is on a par with 
the successful “ shark.” If one goes to jail, 
both should go. The same impure, dishonest 
thought was back of each, and the same in- 
tent produced both the effects. If you do not 
wish to be owned by the devil, keep out of 
his shops. 


It is to be regretted that the trinity — an 
honest man, great thoughts, and adversity — 
must travel hand in hand. 


The highest attainment in life is perfect 
manhood. 


By character, intellectual and humane de- 
velopment, the world may some day be 
civilized. 


i 9 8 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

The man who does not and cannot under- 
stand always shouts ugly names. 


Count Tolstoi said: 

“ Some people treat their reason as if it 
were a flywheel without a connecting strap.” 


Keep a tight strap on your balance wheel, 
or the wheels in your head will “ go buzz ” 
and it’s all off with you. 


A “ level head ” is possible for every one 
of us if taken in time and self placed in care 
of thought and judgment, managed right. 
Enjoy life and everything that’s in it, but 
none of it too much; ever remember an in- 
dividual is but a small pebble on the shores 
of life’s vast ocean. 


187,454 INSANE PEOPLE IN INSTITU- 
TIONS IN THE UNITED STATES 

“ On January 1, 1910, there were 187,454 
insane persons in institutions in the United 
States. This number exceeds the combined 
enlisted strength of the United States Army, 
Navy, and Marine Corps, and it exceeds the 
number of students enrolled in all colleges and 
universities in this country. 

The average cost of caring for a patient for 
a year in institutions is about $175, making 
the total cost during the year of 1910 for 
those in institutions, $32,804,500. It is pointed 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


199 


out that this sum is larger than the amount 
appropriated in the same year for the support 
of the executive, legislative, and judicial 
branches of the Federal Government. 

It is also estimated that the average value 
to the community of an adult between the 
ages of 18 and 45 is $700 a year. On this 
basis the economic loss to the country through 
insanity is more than $130,000,000 a year. 
Adding $32,000,000, the cost of maintenance, 
it shows that the annual cost of insanity to 
the nation is more than $162,000,000.” 


I once had a personal acquaintance who 
began worrying because he imagined people 
were chattering about him. I cautioned him 
to keep the strap on tight, or the wheels 
would buzz; but he worried on and on, until 
the “ bug ” possessed him. The poor fel- 
low is now, and has been for years, an in- 
mate of a mental hospital. 


I knew a man who didn’t control his appe- 
tite; he became a glutton. His favorite diet 
was cheese; he gorged and gorged until he 
imagined himself the president of a well- 
known prominent church. He died, still 
craving cheese. 


I once had a friendly acquaintance deter- 
mined to go into the saloon business for five 
years only, simply to escape poverty and to 
accumulate enough money to pursue worthy 


200 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


ambitions and intellectual pleasures. He 
went into it but he never came out of it. He 
died after eleven years in the business, and 
went to a drunkard’s grave. 


I knew a man — a good man. He “ got 
religion” — the shouting kind; he became a 
holy jumper, and of course jumped out of 
his head. He is now safely ensconced in an 
asylum. 


Another man I knew got a different form 
of religion. He became convinced that he 
was the Christ. He devoted many years try- 
ing to prove it; he would give his “ message ” 
and hand you a card declaring that if you 
didn’t believe his story you would be damned. 
(He himself was already damned.) The 
poor fellow never adjusted the strap, and he 
died while giving his card in a mental hos- 
pital. 


I made the acquaintance of a man some 
years ago, a storekeeper, who went crazy on 
“ overwork.” He worked from 7 A. M. until 
9 and 10 P. M. He kept up his stock and his 
accounts on Sunday. Of course he could find 
no time for recreation — that would be silly; 
in fact, no time to read a book, not even time 
to get acquainted with his family. At last 
the “overwork bug” got him; he’s dead, and 
he left a widow and five children to hustle 
for themselves in this selfish world. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


201 


I once knew a man who made it his busi- 
ness to rob hen roosts, and as he pocketed 
the eggs he would sing in a monotone: 

“ Do what is right, let the consequence follow, 
God will protect us. 

Do what is right.” 


Beware of Dreams — The majority of those 
unfortunates who are in “ institutions ” are 
there through the “ dream bug ” ; it is a most 
prolific breeder of insanity. Horrid deeds 
are often done when dreams are in the head. 

Note for yourself what an awful liar you 
become while attempting to repeat or to 
weave together the tangled ends of a dis- 
ordered-stomach dream of the previous night. 
Never take a dream seriously; it is better for 
you to take medicine. The trouble’s with 
your liver. 


When on your way to a “ spook medium ” 
change your route and go to a brain specialist; 
you will at least avoid adding to your trouble 
and probably save your “ bacon.” 


When you first discover that you have a 
little brain in the garden of the mind, think 
well and guard it with the utmost care, or it 
will run to weeds, and every flower of love 
will be destroyed. 


Be very watchful of religious and imagina- 
tive weeds, or they will overrun your garden 


202 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 

and ruin it. The whole will run wild and 
simply be inhabited by bats and bugs. 


Shakespeare said: 

“ Thus conscience does make cowards of 
us all.” 

He might have said: 

A conscience clear makes brave men of 
us all. 

A defiled conscience makes of man a crimi- 
nal — in awe of himself — a coward. 


A precious pearl is found in the proverb 
old: 

“ No one need be a slave who has learned 
how to die.” 


A brilliant diamond is found in the proverb 
new: 

No one need be a slave who has learned 
how to live. 

It is not what I have written or said in this 
book, that is the important thing for you, it 
is what it makes you think, as you read and 
think your way through its pages. You may 
forget every word, but still you will be a bet- 
ter man for having read it. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


203 


TEN RULES 

1. Love all your neighbors and do them all 
the good you can. 

2. Be honest in thought, in word, and in 
deed. 

3. Remember that “To err is human; to 
forgive is divine.” 

4. True reasoning manhood must always 
be your highest aim in life. 

5. Envy not the rich; riches do not pro- 
duce happiness; in many cases they paralyze 
the humane sensibilities. 

6. Be true to yourself; never be owned by 
another, either in body or in mind. 

7. Aid the poor and always do your best 
to give them opportunities, so that they may 
raise themselves out of misery to the plane 
of contentment. 

8. Be honest and prompt in your dealings 
with your fellowmen. 

9. Do not noise abroad the follies of your 
neighbor. 

10. Keep alive the memories of the good 
and the true. 


ONWARD; OR, THE BUILDERS 


“ This globe lives from the light and 
warmth and glow of other worlds.” 

The aim and object of every life should be 
to make a better world by aiming to build 
characters, by assisting in the lifting up from 
the sordid and gross to the higher realms of 
thought and action, so that the influence of 
our lives shall not be limited to the short 
span Dame Nature allows, but ages after we 
have passed to that unknown shore some seed 
of thought or action we have dropped along 
the wayside will bear a delicious fruitage for 
some poor soul who is struggling under life’s 
burden. 

Personally, I am in love with life, and am 
very thankful for the few blessings of civiliza- 
tion we enjoy to-day. I wish, if possible, to 
add to the sweetness and joy and intellectual 
happiness of my fellows. 

Each man should — 

“ Live for something, have a purpose, 
And that purpose keep in view; 

Drifting like a helmless vessel 
Thou canst ne^er to self be true. 

Half the wrecks that strew life’s ocean, 

If some star had been their guide, 

204 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


205 


Might have now been riding safely, 

But they drifted with the tide.” 

There is to-day, throughout the world, a 
very strong tendency to drift into a sordid, 
gross, or material life, and at these fraternal 
meetings food for thought should be given, 
the brain aroused to action, or they are of 
little use. 

Thought is that attribute of the human 
mind which gives form to mortal ideas of the 
outward world. 

In the higher realms of thought, the earthly 
is intermingled with the heavenly or divine; 
and, in order to humanize man, this power 
must be developed above the mere earthly 
struggles for an existence, toward those ab- 
stract ideals of the good, the true, and the 
beautiful. 

The world always looks upside down to the 
man who is himself upside down, and it has 
been truly said, “ As a man thinketh, so is he.” 

Isolation is unnatural and almost impos- 
sible to man. We are all of us tiny atoms; 
one atom alone is helpless. It is the com- 
bining of these atoms that gives to each an 
individual strength. Man cannot develop 
perfectly alone. 

It is the coming in contact of one mind with 
another that produces thought and develop- 
ment. This contact can be obtained only 
through association in a social way. Society 
is the only field for mental activity. Here 
individuals develop in their hearts a broader 


206 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


and deeper understanding of one another, and 
also of life’s aims and objects. With this 
understanding come the lasting friendships 
which endear us each to the other. 

From the earliest accounts we have of 
man, we learn that his first concept of so- 
ciety consisted in taking unto himself a wife 
and building himself a home; and as civiliza- 
tion advances, it proves that this primitive 
social beginning was the true foundation of 
all intellectual development. 

Throughout the ages, in all the various 
forms of life, there has been a constant com- 
bining and separating from humble begin- 
nings, however low, to our present plane, but 
always leading upward; for human life is like 
a tree, its growth is toward the light. 

In progression’s march, we first find the 
individual, then the family, then the village, 
then the city, which results in the nation and 
the race. 

Individuality and unity are necessary links 
in the chain of human development. Professor 
Barnes tells us in his illustration of the art 
of printing, how necessary is individual 
strength to a higher and more extended form 
of unity. He says: 

“ The first printing was done without sepa- 
rable types; a new construction was required 
for each new piece of printing; hence, the 
twenty-six letters cemented together would 
tell but the one story. It was not until the 
art was perfected and the types separated that 
they were capable of a wide individual use, 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 207 

and could still be combined into a more per- 
fect unity than under the old method of all 
being cemented together.” 

The world needs individual strength for a 
higher and more extended form of unity. It 
needs groups of thinkers harmonizing their 
best thoughts into universal fellowship, in 
united action. 

In my advocating fraternal societies, I do 
not include in heart, mind, or speech either 
the man or the society that wears a mask, 
or the robes of a Christ, or of any other 
great character to further low animal self- 
ishness. We must be absolutely honest, with- 
out pomp or selfishness. 

As we look at the world out of the glasses 
of the present we see all the frailties and im- 
perfections of those around us. The petty 
details of daily life do not bear close inspec- 
tion. It is only by viewing with a general 
gaze the sum total of noble lives that one 
gets away from the thought that the world 
is retrograding. 

Let me ask: 

What is it that daily prevents the world 
from going down into complete baseness? 
What has made us grow to the planes of in- 
telligence we now stand upon? 

What has made this world as beautiful as 
it is, mentally and spiritually? 

The answer is: — 

Freeing men from the slavery of ignorance, 
of superstition, of mental stupidity and, in- 
stead, cultivating the fraternal spirit among 


208 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


men, lifting their minds out of the mud into 
the free air of liberty of thought and its ex- 
pression; freedom of body and of mind, open- 
ing the avenues for free investigation of every 
question pertaining to living and advance- 
ment in every phase of life. 

The fraternal chain binds the living present 
with the lived past and brings to us all the 
sweetness and glory of that past, allowing all 
that was ignorant and devilish and mean to 
die with its own age, leaving deep in our 
hearts the well-defined and glorious hope that 
man is constantly advancing onward and up- 
ward into God’s clear light — Fraternal Day. 

To be fraternal means a state of being 
brotherly — a universal brotherhood, a Christ- 
like love for humankind. 

Though men and creeds may differ as to 
the first cause, the forms or attributes of 
God, the unfathomable, to-day people who 
think and are not hypocrites agree that all 
human beings spring from the same source, 
call it what we will — one God — the Father 
of us all; and from this predicate this fact is 
undeniable, that we are all brothers and sis- 
ters endowed with equal rights by the Creator 
of all, and that among these rights are life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 

Although a self-evident fact exists that 
some men exceed others in mental faculties, 
as much so as the elephant does the mouse in 
physical strength, yet this physical strength 
or mental power does not give the intellectual 
giant the moral right to trample upon his 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


209 


weaker brother; but, to the contrary, it is his 
duty and should be his pleasure to assist in 
his brother’s development. The human 
tendency for the strong to trample upon the 
rights of the weak and to garner the results 
of their toil and use them for their own per- 
sonal advancement or aggrandizement in- 
spired and caused the benevolent ones of 
earth to establish fraternal societies for the 
intellectual and humane advancement of the 
race; for as intellect grows among the chil- 
dren of men they rebel against servitude. 
Therefore we are apostles of fraternity, work- 
ing and hoping for that glorious end, “ The 
Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of 
Man.” 


HUMAN LIFE 

By Lord Byron. Born 1788; died 1824 

Between two worlds life hovers like a star, 
’Twixt night and morn, upon the horizon’s 
verge; 

How little do we know that which we are! 

How less what we may be ! the eternal surge 
Of time and tide rolls on, and bears afar 
Our bubbles; as the old burst, new emerge, 
Lashed from the foam of ages, while the 
graves 

Of empires heave but like some passing waves. 


A HARD-FOUGHT BATTLE 

The progress of civilization has ever been 
a hard-fought battle. It seems natural for 
man to be man’s enemy. The mass of peo- 
ple seem ever ready with abuse and derision 
for anything new, whether it be in the realms 
of thought, science, religion, or action. 
When a God-thought is launched from the 
brain of man for the betterment of the people 
at large, little credit is given him for honest 
motives, but nearly all are ready to charge 
him with ulterior purposes. 


210 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


21 1 


CIVILIZATION 

Let us analyze the word civilization. It 
means to humanize, to make gentle by over- 
coming cruel dispositions and rude habits, 
and let me say that just in proportion to 
man’s civilization or to his being civilized, 
so does his heart beat in sympathy and with 
good will for his fellows. Riches, pomp, dis- 
play, and titles are not indications of pure 
civilization. The pockets may be filled with 
gold, the head with book-learning, but if the 
heart and mind are uncivilized, the rest stands 
as naught. He or she is simply a cunning 
animal in human shape, and must, through 
the various evolutionary processes, be de- 
veloped in accordance with universal law. 

Tennyson illustrated this thought when he 
said: 

“ Yet I doubt not through the ages 
One increasing purpose runs, 

And the thoughts of men are widened 
With the process of the suns.” 

Many persons, though possessing talents 
as brilliant as a field of diamonds, in many 
cases are baneful influences because of the 
spirit of their lives and the manner or purpose 
for which they use their gifts, retarding 
moral and spiritual growth, rather than de- 
veloping or unfolding the same. Their heads 
have been educated but their hearts have been 
neglected — are dead. 


212 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


CIVILIZED OR PRIMITIVE? 

In life, very many men; and many of these 
may be termed educated, and intellectual, 
but they are simply primitive men. Their 
natures contain only the elements of the 
jungle. Cunning, groping, and growling, 
civilization has polished or veneered them up- 
ward from the chin; the rest is decorated in 
“ feathered ” vanity. They neither see nor 
conceive anything of a nobler, higher nature 
than from the low or base plane of animal 
existence. These undeveloped men cannot 
see, feel, nor realize any of the purer rights; 
the blessings and the delights of a humane, 
manly life. In their life and living, the spirit 
of ideality, humanity, love, and benevolence 
is really unknown and unrealized. If it exists 
at all in the depths of the soul, it has had no 
awakening, or it is as yet unborn. In what- 
ever paths by chance they may go, in their 
moving about among men, their actions are 
prompted solely by selfish instincts, and their 
manners are formed by force and imitation. 

These are the men who are for sale, who 
buy such, and who market their kind in po- 
litical marts to the highest bidder. 

They are not high enough in the scale of 
developed life to be competent, in the real 
sense, to be responsible to any man or to any 
power created by man; nor is such responsi- 
bility really expected of them by purely de- 
veloped and scientific men, for the simple 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


213 

reason that these primitives possess neither 
the inner soul light of physical indications nor 
the reasoning powers that form the real man. 
They are devoid of the fundamental principles 
of divine manhood. 

In whatever line of public service they may 
push themselves, or whenever or wherever 
they may come in contact with men, they 
operate in hypocrisy, anger, and selfishness. 
These people have no judging sense of the 
meaning of a man, or of realizing a divine 
personal responsibility. Their lives are con- 
trolled by the primitive, crude innate desires 
of self, and these desires are to hurt, destroy, 
and devour. 

The balances and checks of what we term 
society furnish no place or justification for 
those destructionists who continually antago- 
nize, abuse, and tear down. 

In the real man the soul is mirrored in the 
face, illumined by an invisible light. The in- 
fluence of a real man is as inspiring as music. 
He, having climbed the heights into civilized 
life, has left far behind him the ignorance 
and savage instincts of the primitive man. It 
is only by right living and right thinking that 
right manhood is achieved — the highest pin- 
nacle to be reached in human life. 

In this real man there is a happy blending 
of the divine, the intellectual, the spiritual — 
his whole life in the direction of love, meek- 
ness, goodness, and kindness — and he only 
is a fraternalist, a builder of men, a creator 
within himself. 


214 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

In his climbing, or onward march to higher 
levels of life and living, he extends to a 
brother man encouraging words and a will- 
ing helping hand. 

It can be said of him “ He is a man,” living 
always to a principle, for a principle, and by 
a principle — the principle of truth, justice, 
and mercy. 


TWO FORCES 

Since the beginning of things there seem 
to have been two forces always at work — one 
that builds, and one that destroys. One rep- 
resents reasoning manhood, the other animal 
selfishness; one we may call intelligence, the 
other ignorance; one is good and one is evil; 
one wears the armor of truth, the other of 
falsehood; one is light, the other darkness; 
one is of God, the other of the devil; one is 
Dr. Jekyll, the other Mr. Hyde. Seemingly, 
these two elements, the high and the low, are 
continually battling to gain supremacy. At 
times it seems as though the lower and baser 
element will be victorious. But the great 
virtue of human life is truth, which is in- 
destructible, and although it may be crushed 
to earth it will rise again. Truth is develop- 
ing slowly in the hearts and lives of men, and 
will eventually reign supreme. The lower 
and baser propensities in man will exist only 
under subjection to the intelligence, and 
eventually these baser instincts will be oblit- 
erated and man shall be Man. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


215 


This thought applies to individuals, nations, 
and the world. They shall be governed by 
men. 

The great question of the first cause or the 
coming into existence of this universe and 
millions of other worlds is unknowable and 
unanswerable. This fact, however, presents 
itself to every thoughtful person — that all 
things have a history. 

That man has always been upon the plane 
he now stands, and has always enjoyed the 
present intellectual, scientific, and moral ad- 
vantages, is entirely out of the question, for 
just as we have learned our alphabet to enable 
us to read, so man has learned his alphabet in 
developing from the prehistoric creature to the 
present growing man, or from the ignorant, 
superstitious, to the present enlightened man. 

This world was once a fluid haze of light, 

Till toward the center set the starry tides, 

And eddied into suns, that wheeling cast 

The planets; then the monster, then the 
man. 

— Tennyson: “ The Princess/’ Canto II. 

Through the dim vista of the past, builded 
by thousands of years, we can see our ances- 
tors living in their crude state. 

As we trace the wonderful story told by the 
immense rocks, the tiny stones, the beautiful 
valleys, the gigantic mountains, and the roll- 
ing seas, we can but form a faint idea of the 
more wonderful story told by the develop- 
ment of what is known as man. 


2l6 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


Though man probably made his appearance 
without thought or knowledge, the divine 
creative force, Mother Nature, furnished ma- 
terial for use and tools with which to shape, 
fashion, and mould this wonderful material to 
produce thought and development. 

Naturally man’s first thought was directed 
to bodily wants, such as the appeasing of hun- 
ger, the quenching of thirst, and sheltering 
from the elements. 

It has been rightly said that neither wise 
men nor fools can work without tools. A 
man cannot chop without an ax, or drive a 
wedge without a mallet; and it was this 
mighty thought that was the foundation of 
all invention. Think for a minute of the 
early age of man, known as the “ stone age.” 
Stone was the main material used for making 
the various implements to supply their every- 
day needs. Flints were much used, because 
by a hard glow flakes like the blades of knives 
could be broken off, and that intellect was 
growing is shown in the fact that they real- 
ized the sharp-edged tools which they were 
making must of necessity be harder than the 
material to be cut. These articles at first 
were shapeless; but as intellect grew, form 
commenced to be developed, until they as- 
sumed symmetrical proportions. Necessity 
again forced them to greater achievements — 
thought was developing. Stone would no 
no longer answer their many purposes, and 
some man a little ahead of his fellows in 
thought-power made use of his brighter mind 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


217 

to discover the metals locked up in Nature’s 
treasure-vaults. Here we find the primitive 
prospector. It is believed that gold was the 
first metal discovered by man, supposedly at- 
tracted to it by its glitter and brightness. 

Men and women had no sooner attained 
this height of crude intelligence than they be- 
gan to decorate their bodies. This vanity or 
art of decoration was born before the idea 
of covering the body. The first aristocratic 
move of our early ancestors was that of 
tattooing. This shows that pride and love 
of beauty were, from the earliest stages, at- 
tributes of man, showing his superiority 
over the brute creation. 

In everyday observation we realize the 
truth of this thought, for no one has ever 
yet known of a herd of cows leaving off 
feeding to admire a beautiful sunset, or of 
seeing the face of a horse or a mule grow 
radiant with delight at the sight of a beauti- 
ful landscape. And here let me say that the 
further away man is from animal life, or the 
more developed he becomes in the higher 
faculties and sensibilities, the more beautiful 
does this world appear to him. In just pro- 
portion does he see and appreciate God’s 
handiwork, the majestic wonders of the uni- 
verse. “ The glory of God is intelligence.” 

Thousands of years elapsed and man slowly 
developed from being a roving, long-haired, 
semi-barbarian to the shepherd or tiller of 
the soil. 

He commenced to learn of the greatness of 


218 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

the earth upon which he had been placed, and 
he began to feel his superiority over the 
beasts of the field and the fowls of the air. 

Erelong man began to cover his nakedness 
with the skins of various animals. At last 
he discovered that the soil would bounteously 
yield to the hand of toil. At this stage of life 
each man scratched for himself, and lived for 
himself, in his primitive fashion, uncivilized, 
unrefined, unfraternal. The sunlight of fra- 
ternal love had not yet dawned upon the 
world of men. 

Slowly but surely the process of develop- 
ing man moved on and on. After his phys- 
ical needs were satisfied the higher needs 
began to assert themselves. The natural in- 
stinct of fighting off all other men as an- 
tagonistic to his well-being, mingling with 
the crude longing for association and social 
condition, probably caused him to affiliate 
with woman as the weaker being, but in many 
ways stronger than the man. The natural 
instinct of the male is to shirk the protection 
and rearing of offspring; while the female 
will show unusual strength and ferocity in 
protecting her young. Here would arise a 
conflict of ideas; the woman battling for love, 
the man, depending upon the woman for his 
social needs, finally makes a law of necessity 
and accepts those obligations which nature 
did not endow him with or impose upon him. 

By cultivation or development only does 
the higher love assert itself in man’s mind, 
and with the dawn of fatherhood is born that 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 219 

benevolence which is the father of all bonds 
of union. 

As soon as the love of children is well es- 
tablished, man’s masculine mind naturally 
turns to, first, subduing his offspring to his 
will and instructing them in his knowledge. 
Thus the first law is established, that of com- 
plying with a stated rule, the father and his 
family being a complete embodiment of 
crude government; and all governments, good 
or bad, are founded upon fatherhood. This 
was a grand step toward the goal of frater- 
nity — a universal brotherhood. 

Thus were the first homes builded. Soon 
arose the necessity of the relationship of one 
family with another. Homes soon multi- 
plied into villages, villages into towns, towns 
into cities, cities into nations. No sooner 
had they reached this stage of what we term 
civilization than they began to fight and en- 
slave each other, and here we see the lower, 
baser, or brute element struggling for su- 
premacy. 

Still the higher element of light and love 
was developing, and many wanted peace and 
harmony, as all fraternal workers do now. 
So I might continue on and on with the various 
stages in the growth and development of 
man, from his commencing to till the soil 
and subdue the forest, up to the present time; 
from the bartering with skins of animals to 
our present financial system. 


220 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


SPEECH AND SOUND 

It might be of interest to retrace our steps 
and consider for a few moments another 
branch of development — viz., speech and 
sound. Isolation is unnatural, almost im- 
possible to man. Intellect grows out of fric- 
tion; friction necessitates contact and opposi- 
tion of other men, and man’s contact with 
man necessitates some mode of communicat- 
ing thought. Man is not as independent a 
being as he imagines, and out of this de- 
pendence upon his fellows arose the necessity 
of speech. 

When ordinarily speaking, we little realize 
how limited and vague were these primitive 
modes of communication in the past ages. 

In speaking of languages now in use, we 
must first revert to the period when speech 
was probably unknown, and from the neces- 
sity of communicating wants or thoughts 
arose the use of sounds and inflections to con- 
vey certain meanings. The formation of 
sounds, then words, was the basis of the first 
languages, and from these our modern lan- 
guages are derived. From motions and 
sounds words were formed, and as thought- 
power developed the crude man and woman 
began to unconsciously feel the necessity of 
more explicit communication. 

They had made one step — that from the 
mere guttural sound to a combination of these 
sounds forming syllables. The next step was 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


221 


to combine syllables, and thus they formed 
words. As intellect grew, rude and uncouth 
sentences were constructed from the words 
they had formed. As sentences are thoughts 
expressed in words, they had now reached the 
point where they could communicate and ex- 
change ideas and thoughts by means of 
spoken language. 

After a lapse of probably thousands and 
thousands of years, thought had reached the 
stage of improvement on this language; im- 
provement on words, on pronunciation, on 
inflection, intonation, and spelling, until now 
we have a beautiful language, builded by 
thought and full of melody. 

Next to the advancement of spoken lan- 
guage comes that of the written. 

There was no written language for cen- 
turies in the early stages of man’s develop- 
ment, except rude hieroglyphics or picture 
writings which were marked upon rocks, next 
upon bark of trees, then upon skins of ani- 
mals. The history of nations, consisting of 
war achievements, treaties of alliance, deeds 
of great men, etc., were carefully recorded in 
this crude style of record-keeping. For in- 
stance, a war expedition was illustrated by 
rude sketches of men in line, each carrying 
a queer-looking weapon, intended, I suppose, 
for a bow and arrow, and so on, and we still 
observe this crude literature in vogue among 
the American Indians. To distinguish, in 
these rude pictures, the difference between 
men and women, the men were drawn with 


222 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


heads and the women headless. Uncon- 
sciously these early races discovered that the 
head was the seat of the reasoning faculty, 
and as the women were considered, in all 
primitive cases, almost as beasts of burden, 
and lacking in mental attainments, I sup- 
pose this was the reason they were pictured 
without heads. 

All their thoughts, all their ideas and com- 
munications were expressed in this manner 
by curious hieroglyphics. 

The invention of the alphabet, which is the 
basis of the modern art of writing, is ascribed 
to the Phoenicians, who are thought to have 
taken some of the signs used in hieroglyphics 
and made of them the characters represent- 
ing the sounds of the voice, commencing with 
the vowels, which finally developed into our 
modern alphabet. 

From this alphabet, composed of vowels 
and consonants, letters are taken and com- 
bined and arranged in the form of sentences. 
From the combination of sentences we have 
paragraphs, which express completely and 
connectedly more than one thought. By ex- 
pressing a series of complete thoughts we 
form chapters. By combining chapters we 
form the volume or book, thus complet- 
ing a story or a continuation of relative 
thoughts. 

This, in brief, is the evolution of our 
spoken and written languages from the rude 
ancient hieroglyphics to the culmination of 
the magnificent collection of thoughts, bound 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 223 

into beautiful books, forming our gigantic 
libraries. 

After the social relationships of man were 
established, men of more bold and positive 
types than their fellows stood out as leaders, 
and the love of heroes began to be awakened 
in the human soul. Hero worship ever has 
been and ever will be a prominent characteris- 
tic in man. 

Closely following at the heels of this love 
came the desire to emulate. Mixed with the 
more beautiful and divine wish to be bene- 
factors and protectors of mankind were the 
baser passions for wealth and personal fame. 
The dream of immortality aroused in men the 
feverish wish to live forever in the hearts and 
memories of their brothers, and out of this 
commingling of divine goodness and human 
selfishness arose the mighty records of ac- 
cumulated knowledge and ignorance which 
we call books. 


FULFILLMENT 

“ Sometimes I think the things we see 
Are shadows of the things to be, 

That what we plan we build; 

That every hope that hath been crossed, 
And every dream we thought was lost 
Sometime shall be fulfilled. 

“ That even the children of the brain 
Have not been born and died in vain, 


224 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


Though here unclothed and dumb; 

But on some brighter, better shore 
They live embodied evermore 
And wait for us to come.” 

“ One God, one element, and One Divine 
event, to which the whole creation moves.” 

When we compare our present condition 
of life and living with that of the stone age, 
man’s progression is truly wonderful. How 
the winds, waves, rushing streams, and light- 
ning flashes terrified the primitive man! Now 
all of these elements are harnessed, and under 
man’s control to do his bidding, and each day 
that fades into the past reveals to him some 
new force of nature. Truly we owe a debt 
of gratitude to the fathers of all learning. 
Let us quote from Edward Clodd. He says: 
“ He who first chipped a flint was the father of 
all painters; he who first piled stones to- 
gether was the father of all builders; he who 
first bored a hole in the reindeer’s bone to 
make a whistle, or twanged a stretched sinew, 
was the father of all musicians; he who first 
rhymed his simple thoughts was the father 
of all poets,” and he might well have added, 
“ He who first assumed the obligations of 
family was the father of all governments.” 

In the development or evolution of man, 
the two elements, light and darkness, good 
and bad, love and hate, have always been at 
war. In the march of progression, brute or 
animal instinct has ever been battling with 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 225 

intellect or divine instinct. But we are 
struggling onward toward the glorious goal 
— Fraternity; The Fatherhood; The Brother- 
hood. 

Although the theory of material evolution 
was fought with bitter opposition for long, 
all scientists, thinkers, and theologians to-day 
take it for the basis of material development. 
Side by side with the continually changing 
material growth there is a spiritual or thought 
evolution constantly going on in the soul of 
man. How beautifully James Russell Lowell 
expresses this thought: 

“ New occasions teach new duties; time makes 
ancient good uncouth; 

They must upward still and onward who 
would keep abreast of truth.” 


ON THE UP GRADE 

Every day brings new evidence of the 
divinity of the human mind, and how, one by 
one, nature’s elements and nature’s forces are 
being reduced to its control. 

We are constantly growing both mentally 
and physically to greater achievements. 
Humanity has advanced in thought and in 
humane living from the man-savage to the 
man-barbarian; from the man-barbarian to 
the present man, partially civilized. From 
the cave to the dugout; from the dugout to 
the hovel; from the hovel to the cabin; from 


226 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

the cabin to the cottage; from the cottage to 
the mansion, or to the beautiful homes we 
now enjoy. To-day there are too many huts 
and hovels, not enough real cottage homes. 
So it has been with the spiritual and religious 
evolution of man. We have grown toward 
the light in our beliefs, in creeds and in forms. 
From the worship of stone to the worship 
of living things; from the worship of images 
— idols — to the worship of the elements; from 
the worship of the elements to the worship 
of many imaginary gods. We are now com- 
ing into the fraternal age — one God, one 
family. 


EVER-CHANGING DRAMA 

In the ever-changing drama of life new 
scenes have been enacted; new actors have 
filled their roles. Many of them have made 
their entrances and their exits without con- 
tributing anything toward the welfare of 
their fellowmen, while others have sacrificed 
life and all its pleasures for the humane ad- 
vancement of the human race. Had it not 
been for the brave workers of the dreary past* 
who worked unceasingly and alone, without 
appreciation, without recompense, and died 
upon the cross, the rack, and the scaffold that 
each succeeding generation might reap a 
golden harvest of intellectual liberty from the 
seedlings planted by their sacrifice, we to-day 
would be the victims of despotism and be 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 227 

subject to the whims and fancies of conceited 

ignorance. 

James Russell Lowell tells us: 

“ Careless seems the great avenger, 

History’s pages but record 

One death grapple in the darkness 

’Twixt old systems and the Word. 

“ Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong for- 
ever on the throne, 

Yet that scaffold sways the future, and be- 
hind the dim unknown 
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping 
watch above His own.” 


THE LIGHTS 
What a Struggle 

What a struggle it has been through all 
the ages from the crude unthinking man to 
the present one who does some little think- 
ing. I will call your attention to a few of 
the grand souls who have lighted the way. 

Think of Manu, the Hindoo lawgiver, two 
thousand years before the Christian era. He 
taught : 

“ Let a man continually take pleasure in 
truth, in justice, in laudable practice, and in 
purity. Let him keep in subjection his 
speech, his arm, and his appetite. Sound 


228 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

doctrines and good works purify the soul. 
The intelligence is purified by knowledge.” 

Similar truths and beautiful ideas were 
taught by Minos, Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster, 
Confucius, Lycurgus, Thales, and then Py- 
thagoras, the sublime old worthy of antiquity 
who turned the searchlight of his accumulated 
knowledge full upon the seeds gathered by 
previous thinkers until these seeds blossomed 
into beautiful realities. He taught, love one 
another, strict purity both in body and in 
mind, and a high estimation of woman. 

Many more could be mentioned, such as 
Socrates, the grand old worthy who taught 
that only the wise man can be just, brave, or 
temperate, and that vice of every kind is igno- 
rance. Plato, who taught that the soul not 
only is but ever was and ever shall be immor- 
tal. He taught that the soul is an offspring 
of intelligence, and that love is the bond 
which unites the human with the divine. 

Next in this procession of lights, Aspasia, 
the Greek priestess of learning, and Pericles, 
the prince of statesmen. Aristotle, Epicurus, 
and Lucretius, who said “ man finds his womb 
and tomb in universal nature.” 

Then we have the great light — Christ, the 
Nazarene, the personification of goodness. 
He taught, “ Love thy neighbor as thyself, 
and do unto others as ye would that others 
should do unto you.” From Christ comes 
that grandest of all precepts, the Sermon on 
the Mount (5th, 6th, and 7th chapters of 
Matthew), which will live on and on and 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


229 


permeate all codes of law in subsequent ages. 
He taught the broad principle of “ Love your 
enemies, for God maketh his sun to rise on 
the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on 
the just and on the unjust.” 

The love of Christ can be understood and 
appreciated only as the lives of men and 
women make His teachings a living verity, 
and that is what every earnest honest man is 
aiming to do under the banner of Fraternity. 

Chiefest among those since the time of 
Christ, who have worked for the emancipation 
of humanity we find Savonarola, Copernicus, 
Bruno, Galileo, Luther, Columbus, Shake- 
speare, Newton, Franklin, Washington, Jef- 
ferson, Adams, Paine, and the great, tender- 
hearted man, Abraham Lincoln, who struck 
the fetters from the mind and body of four 
million human slaves. Lincoln said : “ Our 
reliance is in the love of liberty which God 
has planted in us. Our defense is in the 
spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of 
all men and all lands everywhere. Those who 
deny freedom to others deserve it not for 
themselves, and under a just God cannot long 
retain it.” He also gave us the beautiful les- 
son, “ malice toward none and charity for all.” 
Last but not least that fearless man, Robert 
G. Ingersoll, whose mind, unchained and free, 
soared above all clouds and fogs of igno- 
rance, superstition, and bigotry, who taught 
by word and deed the religion of kindness; 
who said in gentle tones as to a future life, 
“ I do not know, but whatever flower of hope 


2 3 o A MAN WORTH WHILE 

springs in my heart, I will cherish, I will give 
it breath of sighs and rain of tears.” He 
taught, “ Help for the living, hope for the 
dead.” 

The great thinkers of the past are to us 
like the mariner’s compass to the sailor — our 
guide, our hope, our blessing for the years to 
come. They have been the world’s builders 
of intellect. 

The greatest achievements of all ages have 
been accomplished by men and women who 
were handicapped, vilified, and abused — there 
have been mighty few of them who were on 
man’s payroll. They suffered and died for 
man by the hand of man, and bigotry still 
goes on. The world is in need of teachers 
and constructors of thinking men. 

Count me o’er earth’s chosen heroes, 
They were souls that stood alone, 
While the men they agonized for 
Hurled the contumelious stone. 

— Lowell. 

Let us banish silly prejudices, remove them 
from the minds of men, and do not call people 
ugly names because they do not believe as we 
do. 

John, in his first epistle, says: 

“ If a man say, I love God, and hateth his 
brother . . . whom he hath seen, how can he 
love God whom he hath not seen? ” 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


231 


THE FRATERNAL AGE 

Out of the shadow of night 
The world moves into light — 

It is daybreak everywhere. 

— Longfellow. 

In our discussion we commenced at the 
stone age. We have now reached the Fra- 
ternal age. We have come out of darkness 
into light. 

All along life’s highway the story of human 
progress, from the time when Solomon dedi- 
cated to the God of his fathers a temple of 
gold up to the present time, the handclasps 
of the brotherhoods have meant higher hopes 
for humanity and a broader destiny for man. 

It is our day now. The workers of the past 
have handed down the charge to us. We 
must do our duty. We cannot pay the debt 
of gratitude we owe our forefathers except 
by contributing our mite to the welfare and 
happiness of this and future generations. 
The nineteenth century made this world a 
neighborhood. It remains for the twentieth 
century to make it a brotherhood. 

The great intellectual lights who have il- 
lumined the pathway of all the ages have 
stood out conspicuously, because each age 
recorded but a few; but their influence has 
increased the number of workers, and this 
new century records various organizations 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


232 

working for the same end for which they 
toiled — the brotherhood of man. 

How much more ought we to accomplish 
than the few struggling workers of the past! 
— for in unity there is strength. 

The man who possesses the true spirit of 
Fraternal love, his great heart throbs with 
pity at the heartaches of the world, and he 
yearns with infinite longing to accomplish 
something that will alleviate the sufferings 
of his brother man. What matter to him the 
human passions and frailties of the children 
of men? He will see through it all. He 
will understand the mistakes and errors grow- 
ing out of our poor, human weaknesses. His 
nature is too broad to harbor deceit, distrust, 
envy, or hate, and his sympathies are too deep 
for condemnation, uncharitableness, and re- 
venge. He has room in his heart only for 
pity. He is the type that stands for those 
benefactors that have lived, worked, and died 
that brotherhood might at last be no longer 
a dream, but a living verity. 

The prescription of the world is to live for 
yourself. The prescription of a fraternal- 
man, or of an honest fraternal society, is to 
live for others, self included. 

Flattery’s the turnpike road to Fortune’s 
door;— 

Truth is a narrow lane all full of quags 

Leading to broken heads, abuse, and rags 
And workhouses — sad refuge for the poor! 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


233 

Flattery’s a mountebank so spruce — get 
riches ; 

Truth a plain Simon Pure, a Quaker 
Preacher, 

A Moral Mender, a disgusting Teacher, 
That never got a sixpence by her speeches. 

— Pindar. 

If you would be an honest builder of ster- 
ling manhood, the chances are you will be a 
poor man — that is, in this world’s goods; es- 
pecially so if your ideas lead you up stream 
against the current of thoughtless popularity, 
for it requires strength and courage and un- 
selfish devotion to and for a cause you know 
is right, and this kind of work is seldom paid 
for by men or societies; but youll be happy 
because you will always be in good company 
and on good terms with your true self, and a 
fellowman will not be your master. 

Right is right, and wrong is no man’s right, 
and with true men there can be no com- 
promise in honor, truth, and justice. The 
thing to do is your work, irrespective of 
whether anyone sees you or not. Battle for 
principle on all questions, backed by com- 
mon sense, guided by intelligence, the path- 
way lighted by reason, and the whole sus- 
tained by a refined conscience. 

If in the depths of your heart burns the 
desire to leave the world a little better for 
having lived in it, you must never tire in your 
efforts nor be discouraged, and you must not 
expect appreciation or praise from the people 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


234 

at large for your efforts. If you do, the an- 
ticipation of a reward is apt to divert your 
mind, and, besides this, keen disappointment 
will follow, which is liable to make you sick 
at heart; and discouragement will follow in 
its wake. 

Though one may yearn for the kindly 
words of “ well done,” the question as to 
whether you receive them or not should cut 
no figure in the reckoning of a helpful life. 
One is selfish to give and expect something 
in return. 

To be generous and give your best efforts 
to your mission is sipping the very cream of 
creation. It is no sacrifice, it is joy. The 
individual passes away — only the fruit of his 
work remains to bless humanity. “ Though 
they may forget the singer, they will not for- 
get the song.” Do your work and find your 
reward in the doing — in the fact of being 
true, in the knowing for yourself that you 
have labored honestly, by precept and ex- 
ample, to lift your fellowmen to higher planes 
of life and living. 

In the long run of years, when your mis- 
sion is completed and you have passed on and 
become a memory, there is no telling what 
will be done for you in honoring your name. 

The hindsight of the masses has always 
been clearer than their foresight, hence we 
have had our crucified saviors all across the 
ages. 

No man or woman can render service to un- 
selfishness, save in the sacrifice of self. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


235 


“ Who fails to sow for fear that he 
Shall not be here to reap 
Must lie in black obscurity 
Through all his final sleep.” 

And let us not be weary in well-doing: for 
in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. 

— Gal. vi, 9. 


“ One man, when he has done a service to 
another, is ready to set it down to his ac- 
count as a favor conferred. Another is not 
ready to do this, but still in his own mind he 
thinks of the man as his debtor, and he knows 
what he has done. A third in a manner does 
not even know what he has done, but he is 
like a vine which has produced grapes, and 
seeks for nothing more after it has once pro- 
duced its proper fruit. As a horse when he 
has run, a dog when he has caught the game, 
a bee when it has made its honey, so a man 
when he has done a good act does not call 
for others to come and see, but he goes on to 
another act, as a vine goes on to produce 
again the grapes in season. Must a man then 
be one of those who in a manner act thus 
without observing it? Yes. What more 
dost thou want when thou hast done a man 
a service? Art thou not content that thou 
hast done something conformable to thy na- 
ture, and dost thou seek to be paid for it, 
just as if the eye demanded a recompense for 
seeing, or the feet for walking?” — Marcus 
Aurelius. 


236 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

“ To be true in heart and just in act are the 
first qualities necessary for the elevation of 
humanity. ’ ’ — F r oude. 

The world is slowly growing wiser, com- 
ing out of bigoted darkness. Erelong we 
shall worship God by service — God the source 
of all light and love, the Father of us all. 
We shall know but one family, which shall 
then mean humanity. We shall some day 
erect temples of learning which shall stand 
for the development of men, real men, with- 
out respect to race, creed, class, or color, unit- 
ing all nations in friendship, and all mankind 
in a universal brotherhood. 


NEVER SAY FAIL! 


(Anonymous) 

Keep pushing — ’tis wiser 
Than sitting aside, 

And dreaming and sighing 
And waiting the tide; 

In life’s earnest battle 
They only prevail 
Who daily march onward 
And never say fail! 

With an eye ever open, 

A tongue that’s not dumb, 
And a heart that will never 
To sorrow succumb, 

You’ll battle and conquer 
Though thousands assail; 
How strong and how mighty 
Who never say fail! 

The spirit of angels 
Is active, I know, 

As higher and higher 
In glory they go; 
Methinks on bright pinions 
From heaven they sail, 

237 


238 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

To cheer and encourage 
Who never say fail! 

Ahead then keep pushing, 
And elbow your way, 
Unheeding the envious, 

And asses that bray; 

All obstacles vanish, 

All enemies quail, 

In the might of their wisdom 
Who never say fail! 

In life’s rosy morning, 

In manhood’s firm pride, 
Let this be the motto 
Your footsteps to guide; 

In storm and in sunshine, 
Whatever assail, 

We’ll onward and conquer, 
And never say fail! 


TO THE BOYS 
My Young Brothers: 

Some time ago I visited Harvard Uni- 
versity — the oldest, the largest institution of 
learning in the United States. There are 
over seventy buildings or halls in this uni- 
versity, many of them over one hundred 
years old. Here and there are tablets enroll- 
ing the names of such men as General Wash- 
ington, General Putnam, Stephen Page (the 
first printer), and many other historic per- 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


239 


sonages. In going about one feels as though 
being enveloped in the atmosphere of knowl- 
edge and goodness. Every room is a source 
of thought and admiration. 

Many of America’s greatest men were de- 
veloped in this cradle of learning. My path 
of life is not strewn with many regrets, but 
while visiting this sublime institution an 
earnest wish came over me that I could re- 
trace the steps of age twenty-five years. I 
would then surely graduate from Harvard if 
I had to carry a shine-box to make a living, 
or, in other words, to pay my way while 
going through. 

I wish I could open the eyes of thought- 
less boys to the possibilities lying within their 
grasp in this great country of ours for edu- 
cation. I am quite sure that then they would 
throw away the cigarette, the drink, and, in 
fact, dissipation of every kind. They would 
lift their heads and open their eyes toward 
the light. They would seek for knowledge 
outside of their own narrow circle. This 
learning would bring humility, and humility 
would bring love; and great love casts away 
superstition, fear, and trembling, and makes 
us men. Boys, get out into the highway of 
life and journey onward and upward, so that 
your footprints may be indelibly stamped on 
the sands of time, telling, in after years, to 
those who come after you — “ This is the way 
out of darkness into light, out of ignorance 
into the realms of intellectual living and en- 
joying.” 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


240 

“ ’Tis not for man to trifle; life is brief, 

And sin is here. 

Our age is but the falling of a leaf, 

A dropping tear. 

We have no time to sport away the hours, 
All must be earnest in a world like ours. 

Not many lives, but only one, have we; 
One, only one. 

How earnest should that one life be, 

That narrow span. 

Day after day still spent in blessed toil, 
Hour after hour still bringing in new spoil.” 


“ WHAT FOOLS THESE MORTALS BE ” 

We hear of new life, new thought, new 
wine, new women, new styles, and new scan- 
dals; but what a relief, what a golden prom- 
ise for the future, it would mean if we could 
only hear of a few new men — real men — freed 
from superstitious bugs that have buzzed and 
buzzed in the ears of humanity since before 
the time man could stand erect! The old-es- 
tablished and deep-rooted system or plan is 
for the dead to control the living. It seems 
natural for stupid man to drink from the 
stagnant pools of the dead past instead of 
imbibing from the fountains of living flowing 
waters. 

“ The world is full o’ ruts, my boy, 

Some shallow and some deep, 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


241 


An’ every rut is full o’ folks 
As high as they can heap.” 

The world is weighted down with old cus- 
toms, old ideas, old notions, and old super- 
stitions, and we cannot hope for anything 
very new and useful unless we begin with 
the boys and in their youth build new men. 
Boys, for the sake of your own welfare and 
for the intellectual happiness of others, so 
that all may enjoy the beauties and delightful 
pleasures of life in the purest and highest 
form, it is absolutely necessary that you lop 
off many of the useless, rotten branches from 
the tree of everyday life and custom. You 
must kill the poisonous bugs that blight, de- 
stroy, and prevent the development and 
growth of life’s healthful and sustaining 
fruits. 

If you fear that you will find no crop, no 
harvest, nor anything new in the garden of 
life, I would advise you to take a chance, go 
out into the arena of thought, and if neces- 
sary go it alone. You will find it advan- 
tageous to your growing higher self to walk 
alone and have nothing to hold to, rather 
than to cling to rotten branches or paddle 
around the shore, and be foolish and miser- 
able all the days of your life. Every ordi- 
nary human being has a mind, and it is dis- 
tressingly useless unless it is free. 

Once let a boy or a man become disgusted 
with his fool self, and there comes a hope that 


242 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

he will soon pay some attention to his real 
or sensible self. 

The soul of every man may be termed as 
in prison. We have found five windows — 
the senses — all beautifully enveloped with a 
spiritual sense; and all these must be clean 
and clear, and bear in mind there are many 
other windows awaiting unfoldment. 

Develop your intellect and let the sun- 
shine of truth and reason permeate your life, 
and you will have no need for the light of 
a superstitious candle. 

Do not adopt into your daily life or into 
your laugh the following hoary-headed stories 
and bugs of superstition; if they should have 
already found a crooked entrance into your 
boyish mind, dig them out, get a new 
mind: 

First — Do not laugh with anybody else 
that laughs at the old and silly jokes that are 
detrimental or otherwise to the mother-in- 
law. The minstrel or jokesmith is awfully 
tired of these old stories, and he shoots them 
off only by habit; he calls them old stock. 

Second — Banish from your mind the baby 
foolishness as to “ 13 ” being an unlucky num- 
ber, or the “ 13th ” being an unlucky day. 
Ignorance was and is the mammy of such 
ancient and foolish superstitions; the indi- 
vidual who adheres to such is the object of 
a laugh, and it should be on him. 

Third — Never think for a minute that keep- 
ing a black cat, or a white cat, or a bob- 
tailed dog will bring you luck; only poor, 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 243 

simple, primitive people put any credence in 
such stupid nonsense. 

If your head is roof-shaped and you have 
a natural tendency to superstition, made so 
from birth, or if you are surrounded by weak- 
minded or luny people, move, get out of the 
rut, go into new environments. The maj- 
esty of manhood is of greater value to you 
than all the acquaintances on earth. Surely,* 
if you possess only a little bit of a thinker, 
you can stop living and operating in, on, and 
with such trifling foolish things. Try a 
change with a little self-denial, and by so 
doing you will gain strength and build a 
reasoning manhood. 

Fourth — Bump or shake out of your head 
the silly thought of carrying a button in your 
pocket to charm away evil spirits, or to keep 
you in good health. There are no spirits to 
charm away, avoid whisky spirits, and you’re 
safe; obey nature’s laws and you will have 
good health. 

There is not a bit of reason or sense in 
any of these silliest of silly things. Let me 
suggest that you take the button in your 
hand, stand erect, hold up the button and 
look at it, and at the same time look at the 
shadow of your wonderful self in the mirror, 
and unconsciously the line from Shake- 
speare will force its way — 

“ What fools these mortals be ! ” 

Fifth — Don’t worry as to whether you hap- 
pen to see the new moon over your left or 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


244 

your right shoulder, for, whether to the right 
or to the left, you ought to know that not in 
the least will these happenings have anything 
to do with your success or with your failure. 
You had better look in other directions — say, 
down here on earth — for success or failure, 
joy or sadness. The moon is beautiful to 
the eye and mind of thinking people from any 
point of view. The beams of the silvery 
moon make the night beautiful, and light 
and cheer the way for the feet of the weary 
traveler. 

Sixth — Don’t faint or tremble in fear of a 
calamity, should you by accident spill a little 
salt. You’ve simply lost a little salt, that’s 
all; but salt is cheap, and from Salt Lake in 
Utah the world can be supplied indefinitely 
with salt; so for goodness’ sake don’t worry 
and take a fit over a little bit of salt. 

Seventh — Don’t be afraid to walk under a 
ladder; that is, if you have reason to believe 
the ladder is fastened well. Silly superstition 
is not affecting the ladder, and you must have 
enough or more common sense than to allow 
such a foolish notion to have an effect on 
your God-given mind. 

Eighth — Stop laughing and falling in line 
with the old jokes and abuse on the police- 
men of the town where you live. This silly 
nonsense and prejudice is hurtful, and, be- 
sides, it is very old and smells to heaven. 

As a class, policemen are the best men on 
earth, and abuse doesn’t tend to make them 
any better. Policemen continually risk their 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 245 

lives among the vicious and undeveloped 
creatures of earth. These peace officers al- 
ways do more for the citizens than the citi- 
zens of any town or place do for them. 

Ninth — “ The haunted house.” If the 
haunting bug has stung you, take a dip in the 
fountain of sense and knowledge and wash 
away the silly poison from your mind. The 
haunt bug is not in the house, it is in the 
head of the luny. Empty heads haunt empty 
houses, and they also fill the world with 
haunting spooks. 

If you fail in keeping your mental ma- 
chinery in good running order, the goblins 
will get you wherever you go. 

Boys, “ the universe is governed by law,” 
and so is everything that is in the earth, and 
above the earth. There is no chance, no 
broken law, without a bad effect. Man’s 
life and destiny are not controlled by a but- 
ton in your pocket, by spots on a deck of 
cards, by rapping on tables, by unlucky num- 
bers, et cetera. 

My son, you are but a tiny atom in the 
immensity of space and of worlds. A puff 
of wind and you are blown away. You are 
here to-day and gone to-morrow. You can 
be a success only by developing the best that 
is in you; you must be the captain of your 
life, your soul. 

Ignorance and superstition is a universal 
curse. Boys, grow out of the mists and fogs 
into the sunlight of intelligence and freedom 
— and be men. 


246 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

If you have an ugly heart bearing sinful 
pride and selfishness, it will show in your 
face, and you are surely ugly. It is a duty 
and a privilege possessed by every one to be 
good-looking. There are mighty few bad 
boys — it’s bad management that ruins. You 
are the architect and builder of your life and 
looks. Clean living will engrave lines upon 
the face, and the light of the soul will illumi- 
nate and make you beautiful, and people 
everywhere will look lovingly upon you. 
The sculptor Time chisels character upon the 
face; every trait is recorded there. 

I would ask you not to believe that “ sow- 
ing your wild oats ” will make you a better 
man. First of all, no man or boy in all the 
history of the world ever had any “ wild oats” 
to sow. The phrase “ sowing his wild oats ” 
was framed by “ the devil ” and is carried 
into action by his victims. Remember always 
the harvest is a ruined life, a shipwreck on 
the rocks of despair. 


ON THE STREET 

Boys, never smoke cigarettes, cigars, and 
pipes and imagine people think you are 
clever, because if you do think so you are 
mistaken; they just think to the contrary — 
that is, thinking people do, and thinkers are 
the only people worth while. 

Never sit down on steps or curbstones; if 
you do, you advertise yourself as a loafer, 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 247 

and if you are not one, it’s the starting 
point. 

Never walk with your hands in your 
pockets, nor with your hat on the back of 
your head. It’s an indication that you are 
a slouch or a hoodlum. 

Never stand with feet in the breadths, and 
with your hands in your pockets; it indicates 
ill-breeding and vulgarity. 

Never stand on the corner over five min- 
utes, and then only when absolutely neces- 
sary. Keep moving. 

Never be ugly nor look ugly. No need of 
it. — In such a mood you darken the street and 
destroy the sunlight of your soul. 

Remember, “ Conscious strength assumes 
weak attitudes. Conscious weakness assumes 
strong attitudes/’ 

Cultivate self-confidence; don’t forget that 
there is a vast difference between self-confi- 
dence and self-conceit. One represents a 
man, the other an ass. 

Be neat in your dress and always be clean. 
If you have whiskers, shave them off. Hair 
is not an evidence of civilization or refine- 
ment. Take particular care of your teeth, 
the pearly gates to cleanliness and good 
health. 

Do not go anywhere that your mother 
couldn’t go with you. 

Use good language, pronounce your words 
correctly, and speak loud enough for people 
to hear you. 

Salute your acquaintances and your friends 


248 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

with the warmest respect, with smile, bless 
you, smile; it will soon come easy. 

Never bow to any one because he or she 
possesses wealth; that is sycophancy. The 
man who bows very low is unreliable. Be 
strong ; it is the mind and the heart that make 
the man. Some men boastingly claim or 
say “ the world owes me a living.” Boys,, 
you had better adopt a nobler view and say, 
I owe the world a life, and whatever the 
world owes me I may collect only by living 
true to life — an energetic, honest man. 

Banish from your mind and heart all petty 
strife and turmoil, and in their stead develop 
and cultivate the holy spirit of love, peace, 
and harmony. 


INDICATIONS OF MANHOOD 
IN A BOY 

He is respectful, polite, and courteous to 
everybody. 

He never retains his seat in a car, when 
an old man or an old woman is hanging to 
a strap. 

He knows his mother is the queen of earth, 
and he is ever ready to aid, comfort, cheer, 
and protect her. 

He never allows anybody to speak disre- 
spectfully of any member of his family with- 
out a gentlemanly resentment. 

When absent, he never allows anything to 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 249 

deter him from writing to his home and 
loved ones. 

He never picks a quarrel, but when assailed, 
he surely is the victor. 

He is ambitious and prompt in school. He 
realizes that boyhood is the period of life to 
lay the foundation for manhood. 

He is fond of athletics, and he plays fair 
in every game. 

He is generally a winner, but at the same 
time he is a good loser, and never squeals. 

He is a boy, but nevertheless he is a gentle- 
man, anywhere and everywhere. 


MOTHER AND FATHER 

“ Be kind to thy father, for when thou wert 
young, 

Who loved thee as fondly as he? 

He caught the first accents that fell from 
thy tongue, 

And joined in thy innocent glee. 

“ Be kind to thy father, for now he is old, 
And the locks which are left him are gray. 
His footsteps are feeble, once fearless and 
bold— 

Thy father is passing away.” 

The best and richest qualification for a 
sterling manhood and the best letter of 
recommendation a young man can have or 
give to the world, free from ostentation, is 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


250 

the positive assurance, the absolute proof, by 
precept and by practice, of his love, his de- 
votion, his helpfulness to his mother, and to 
his loved ones at home. The saddest result, 
or a most distressing picture, of his selfish, 
misspent life is to grow into and live in a 
state of careless neglect of one’s parents in 
their declining years. Such a boy cannot 
succeed, nor will he be happy, for he is badly 
handicapped in the race of life in and through 
his own undoing, in lacking a proper, cour- 
ageous, manly spirit. (As we sow so shall 
we reap.) His sin of negligence will surely 
find him out, and fill life’s cup with pain and 
sad regrets in his after years. 

Many a dear old mother and father are 
sitting in the twilight of life waiting alone, 
going into the deeper shadows, their hearts 
in pain, their heads bowed down in sorrow, 
a secret kept from the world, and this 
through thoughtless neglect by their chil- 
dren. 

These parents have devoted their whole 
lives and energies, their hopes and their am- 
bitions — yea, life and its purposes all have 
been centered in those dear ones who now 
on life’s journey heedlessly neglect and pass 
them by. 

Of all sad words of tongue or pen, 

The saddest are these — it is, but ought not 
to be. 

If you lack a spirit of love and devotion 
for your mother, if you do not care to help 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


251 

her, if you do not write to her, if you are 
of a careless nature, you had better begin 
to-day— at once — to cultivate a higher and 
nobler spirit, put your better self into action, 
and develop God J s sunlight of fraternal love 
within your soul. 

We are as we make ourselves, and there 
is no need of any boy or of any man being a 
“ scrub.” A man is the only thing to be. 


“ PORE OLE DAD!” 

It is a peculiar fact that the poets of the 
ages have always sung sweet songs of praise 
to Woman. We continually hear about 
“ Those Dreamy Eyes,” “ Come into the Gar- 
den, Maud,” “ Oh, Say, Have You Seen Lit- 
tle Bessie?” “ Sweet Marie,” or “Darling 
Sue.” But seldom do we see or hear a song 
or a poem of praise to the old man. 

I heard one song many years ago. Its 
author had for the stage setting a tavern 
several miles outside of a large city; the 
night was dark and drear. Two characters 
were in the play — a sweet little girl and a 
drunken old man. The little girl was dressed 
in white, singing: 

“ Father, dear father, come home with me 
now, — 

The clock in the steeple strikes one.” 

It was a cold night, and the little girl was 
dressed in white. One other song I heard 


252 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

about the old man was sung by Lew Dock- 
stader, the minstrel, and everybody joined 
in the chorus — “ Everybody works but 
father ” ; and to-day — 

“ Ye kin sca’ce pick up a paper 
An’ its ‘ poets’ corner ’ greet, 

’Cept ye’ll see er pirty poem 

’Bout the mother, saintly sweet; 

But ye’ll have a time a-searchin’ — 
Eyes will be er-achin’ bad 
Ere ye’ll overtake er poem 

At this time for pore ole dad! 

“ No, it isn’t willful in ’em — 

Them that writ of mother dear — 
That thar’s never notice taken 
Of her ole man settin’ near. 

No, it’s never meant to slight him, 

But hit looks a little sad — 

All the bouquets made for mother, 

Not a bloom for pore ole dad! 

“ True, our mother watched above us 
Till her dear old eyes wud ache, 

But ole dad he humped to feed us 
Till his back would nearly break. 
Mother crooned above the cradle, 

Gave devotion, all she had; 

Still, that wasn’t any circus 
At this time for pore ole dad! 

“ Do not take one line from mother 
When ye write the soul-sweet song, 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


253 


But if thar’s a word for father 
Now and then it won’t be wrong. 

Pore ole soul! He’s bent and wrinkled, 
An’ I know Twould made him glad 
If, while you are praisin’ mother, 
Somethin’s sed for pore ole dad ! ” 


A WORD OF MINE 

If any little word of mine 
Can make one heart the lighter, 

If any little song of mine 
Can make one life the brighter 
God help me speak that little word, 
And take that bit of singing, 

And drop it in some lonely vale 
And set the echoes ringing. 


FRATERNAL INFLUENCE 
TO YOU 

Stranger ! if you, passing, meet me, and desire 
to speak to me, why should you not speak 
to me? 

And why should I not speak to you? 

— Walt Whitman. 

There are laws affecting the masses of 
the people which the best of governments 
cannot reach. These laws are all embraced 


254 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


in the beautiful and elevating principle of 
fraternal influence. 

I believe there is no better way to show 
our love of a Father than by helping His 
children. 

Come with me into the open fields of life; 
let us be soldiers in God’s army of human 
progress. Let us work unselfishly for the 
uplifting and bettering of humankind, teach- 
ing the underlying truths of the great Father- 
hood and a universal brotherhood. Let us 
make our lives worth the living by proving 
to the world that we are always and every- 
where our brothers’ helpers. Don’t say any 
more — 


“ WHEN I HAVE TIME 

“ When I have time, so many things I’ll do 
To make life happier and more fair 
For those whose lives are crowded now 
with care; 

I’ll help to lift them from their low despair 
When I have time. 

“ When I have time, the friends I love so well 
Shall know no more those weary, toiling 
days. 

I’ll lead their feet in pleasant paths always, 
And cheer their hearts with words of sweet- 
est praise, 

When I have time. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 255 

“ When you have time, the friends you hold 
so dear 

May be beyond the reach of all your sweet 
intent ; — 

May never know that you so kindly meant 
To fill their lives with sweet content 
When you had time. 

“ Now is the time ! Ah, friends, no longer 
wait 

To scatter loving smiles and words of cheer 
To those around, whose lives are now so 
dear; 

They may not need you in the far-off year — 
Now is the time.” 

As frost is detrimental to flowers, so are 
thoughtlessness and selfishness detrimental 
to the higher and sweeter things of life. 

Let us extend the little courtesies of every- 
day life. They are potent in their influence 
upon our lives, and for the welfare and hap- 
piness of the present and future generations. 
They smooth the rough places and shed gen- 
ial warmth all along life’s pathway. 

As the little raindrops assist in bringing 
forth the fields of golden grain and the flow- 
ers of spring, so can each one of us do our 
part toward bringing our fellows into the 
sunshine of peace and harmony. 

These little courtesies should not be limited 
to any one particular party, place, or time. 
A true fraternalist is cheerfully fraternal in 
the home, in the lodge-room, on the street. 


256 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

and everywhere, at all times, and under all 
conditions. He always gives — 


“ THE FRIENDLY HAND 

“ When a man ain’t got a cent, and he’s feel- 
in’ kind o’ blue, 

And the clouds hang dark and heavy and 
won’t let the sunshine through, 

It’s a great thing, O my brethren, for a fel- 
low just to lay 

His hand upon your shoulder in a friendly 
sort of way. 

“Makes a man feel curious; it makes the 
tear-drops start, 

And you sort of feel a flutter in the region 
of the heart. 

You can’t look up and meet his eyes, you, 
don’t know what to say, 

When his hand is on your shoulder in a 
friendly sort of way. 

“ Oh, the world’s a curious compound, with 
its honey and its gall, 

With its cares and bitter crosses, but a good 
world after all. 

And a good God must have made it, least- 
ways that’s what I say 

When a hand rests on my shoulder in a 
friendly sort of way.” 

Upon the doctrine of influence the whole 

vast pyramid of humanity is builded. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


257 

Each and every one of us from the least 
to the greatest sends forth an influence either 
for good or for evil. The great clock of time 
is not set or kept in motion alone by the 
possession of gifts and talents. It is the use 
we make of them that determines whether 
the pendulum shall swing onward and up- 
ward, or backward and downward. Under- 
lying every life that is worth the living is 
the power of love and an ability to serve, and 
we can thrive only by developing the highest 
possibilities of the mind. 

The records of our lives will be read in 
after years and the fruits will be known and 
gathered from the seeds we are now planting. 
The influence wielded lives on forever. Out 
of evil, evil flourishes. Out of purity, purity 
buds. A good life lives on forever. 

Looking with the physical eye on the lives 
of men, some appear radiant with color, while 
others seem rayless and colorless. Be not 
hasty in your judgment, for he who appears 
colorless may be one of earth’s unnamed 
heroes living a life of devotion, of truth; and 
as the little flower sheds its perfume, so he 
casts his influence for perpetual good. It is 
so with each of us; we either cheer or dis- 
courage, bless or curse, set in motion either 
sunshine or clouds. Which shall it be? If 
we want light, love, and purity, we must live 
it, and it will radiate its beauty everywhere 
we journey in our daily walks of life. 

Do not be discouraged because you have 
fewer talents than those you see about you. 


258 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

I stood some time ago in the presence of 
Niagara Falls and beheld with awe the 
grandeur of the majestic scene, and as I 
meditated, surrounded as I was by all this 
bewildering beauty, I thought of how the 
tiny rivulets, the babbling brooks, and the 
great flowing rivers intermingled their forces 
and formed the one mighty river which thun- 
dered over the precipice like the roaring of 
heaven’s musketry, and as I paused in won- 
derment I realized that this stupendous 
force was not only one of unapproachable 
splendor but, under man’s control, it becomes 
a mighty force and an influence for the wel- 
fare and comfort of humankind, giving light 
to cities and power to thousands of industries. 
The tiny rivulet did its part as well as the 
great flowing river. So can we do our part to- 
ward the happiness and betterment of human- 
kind, though our efforts be as small as that 
of the rivulet. 

Be like the sun — give light and sympathy 
to all men, remembering the sun’s glory is 
not diminished nor its brightness darkened 
by shedding warmth, beauty, and life to all 
the world. 

Climb the mountains of truth eternal, of 
honor, intelligence, and integrity. Get out 
of the swamps, quit living in the fogs and 
mists of ignorance, slander, and hypocrisy. 

Carry on with high-hearted courage and 
steadfast truth the mission you have set out 
to perform under the banner of fraternal love. 

Instill into the mind of every brother you, 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


259 

meet that every man is his brother, and that 
each has the same natural right to every 
blessing, to every one of God’s gifts, as much 
so as himself. 

Do not discourage the enthusiast, don’t be 
jealous of him, don’t “ rip him up the back ” 
nor wound his feelings. The fires of frater- 
nal love and progress are kept alive and burn- 
ing through the generous efforts of noble 
enthusiasts. 

Never in human history has there been 
such a demand for pure, honest, unselfish 
men as now, who are ready to lay aside 
ambition, comfort, and fortune for the wel- 
fare and happiness of mankind. 

Reader — Let you and me now clasp hands 
and pledge ourselves to do what we can to 
disperse the clouds of ignorance and selfish- 
ness, and in their stead develop the sunlight 
of universal peace and eternal good will 
among the children of men. 

Let us go ahead with the clearing through 
the forest of life, destroy the weeds of igno- 
rance, uproot and burn the cactus of deceit 
and hypocrisy, kill the thousands of insects 
that sting with unkind words, cut down the 
big, ugly trees of selfishness that obscure 
the light; for God’s pure sunlight of fraternal 
love must be let in before we can have a pure 
civilization. Let it shine into your hearts, 
O my brothers! It will give you happiness 
by day and contentment by night. 

A real Fraternalist stands among his fellow- 
men with a feeling that he can shake hands 


26 o 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


and say Brother to the vilest man on earth. 
He believes in and understands the brother- 
hood of man. 


THE SIN OF THE WORLD 

The controlling sin of the world is unkind- 
ness and selfishness. The greatest virtue 
and sweetest blessing is kindness and un- 
selfishness. 

Life is a great drama where each man plays 
a part, from the leading man to the staff - 
bearer; one is as necessary as the other; one 
should be as ambitious to do well as the 
other. 

The great Shakespeare lived in poverty and 
was barely known during his lifetime. It is 
said of him that he would walk miles to pro- 
cure a pamphlet of three pages; he couldn’t 
take the street car because there was none; 
he couldn’t hire a Jack because he had no 
money, but, notwithstanding his many strug- 
gles, his life and influence gave to us an 
Edwin Booth, a Forrest, a Macready, a Bar- 
rett, an Irving, a Mansfield, a Sothern, a 
Warde, and many other interpreters of his 
works, and we to-day are being educated, re- 
fined, and uplifted by Shakespeare. He was 
simply one of the enthusiastic strugglers on 
life’s uneven road; yet his influence lives and 
will live on and on forever. 

The pulpit, the stage, and the rostrum 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 261 

should work hand in hand together for the 
intellectual and moral uplift of humanity. 

The stage a few years ago was looked upon 
as something to be avoided; actors were 
looked upon as walking representatives of 
vice and wickedness, but it is changing now. 
When Edwin Booth died, New York, the 
leading city of America, was draped in 
mourning. The American flag was placed 
at half-mast on all public buildings in recog- 
nition and in honor of the life’s work and 
influence of this splendid man; and many 
others could be mentioned in a similar way. 


TO BE COURTEOUS 

To be courteous will insure you fair play, 
and you will be less likely to be elbowed and 
crowded on the journey of life. It is not abso- 
lutely necessary that you be familiar with the 
rules of etiquette. I do not mean the spuri- 
ous imitation which is often practiced in so- 
called society. There is a courtesy which is 
like French polish — all on the outside. Kisses 
on the lips; daggers in the heart; eyes filled 
with tears, but a soul of brass. There is a 
courtesy which flatters, fawns, and cringes 
like a dog about the feet of the master or of 
the wealthy, while it is haughty to its equals 
and insolent and browbeating to its inferiors. 

You have seen the courtesy practiced by 
the starched, foppish, would-be gentleman. 
As he moves down the street you see him 


262 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


admiring his figure as reflected from the shop 
windows in passing. If he meets “ Miss 
Wealthy ” he is bland, smooth — the very es- 
sence of politeness; but let him meet an aged 
person or a crippled soldier, bending beneath 
a heavy burden, instead of lending a helping 
hand, like the contemptible Pharisee he 
passes by on the other side. That kind of 
courtesy passes for the genuine with none but 
his own kind. We have sometimes seen the 
deepest, truest refinement in the man whose 
hands were hard and seamed with toil. We 
have met the greatest real vulgarity in the 
man whose manners were a perfect outward 
polish. 

Courtesy is not the exclusive possession of 
any one class; it’s a dweller in the cot of 
the lowly as well as in marble halls. The 
poor man who rises to give you his chair 
while he sits on a box is a polite man. A 
gentle heart prompts the act; motive deter- 
mines everything. 

If we are courteous merely to substantiate 
our claim to move in good society, it is but 
the outward semblance, a shamming, a seem- 
ing, a thing to smile at, contemptible if not 
pitiable; but that politeness which springs 
spontaneously from the heart, the desire to 
put others at their ease, to save the stranger 
from a feeling of awkwardness, this goodness 
of heart is the keynote of true courtesy. In 
other words, to be kind is to be courteous, 
a disposition to please and a willingness to be 
pleased. Therefore, if politeness be the art of 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 263 

graceful pleasing, you can acquire it without 
much effort. 

As charity covers a multitude of sins be- 
fore God, so does politeness before men. 

— Chesterfield. 

John Wesley’s reply to a man, when their 
carriages met on the highway, is pertinent in 
this connection. The man knew Mr. Wesley 
as a public character, but objected to his doc- 
trines and sought to give vent to his prejudice 
by an act of rudeness. He held to the middle 
of the road. Mr. Wesley cheerfully drove 
into the ditch. In passing each other, the 
ruffian said, “ I never turn out for a fool.” 
Mr. Wesley, replying, said, “ I always do.” 

I like the reproof which a Chinaman gave 
an American. The American pushed him off 
into the mud. The Chinaman on rising said 
to the American, “ You Christian, me heathen 
—Good-by.” 

A stranger entered a church in one of our 
cities and was allowed to stand quite a while, 
although there was not a lack of unfilled 
pews. Finally approaching one of the breth- 
ren, the stranger said, “ What church is 
this?” The answer was, “ Christ’s Church.” 
“ Is he in?” said the stranger. The church- 
man took in the situation and gave the gen- 
tleman a seat. 

We want more courtesy in our places of 
business, in the marts of trade, as well as in 
our homes. The beauty of it is, courtesy en- 
riches rather than impoverishes the heart. A 


264 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

rough, brusque manner repels like a cold 
wind, but a winning gentleness steals upon 
the heart like a sunbeam and makes the win- 
ter blasts blow as soft as the breath of roses. 


THE RECORD OF A LIFE 

Let us teach by word and by example 
honesty and truthfulness, with personal pu- 
rity in our lives. Let us help one another to 
think clearly and to act kindly, remembering 
always that every obstacle encountered and 
surmounted on the way will make our lives 
all the brighter to shine, both in the mental 
and in the physical. 

The good accomplished by such living can 
never be recorded with feeble words in man- 
made books of earthly life. 

Conscience, the record keeper of the life, 
will give full credit on the golden pages of the 
records of eternity. 


THE GOOD LIFE, LONG LIFE 

It is not growing like a tree 
In bulk doth make man better be; 

Or standing long an oak three hundred year, 
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere; 

A lily of a day 
Is fairer far in May, 

Although it fall and die that night; 

It was the plant and flower of light. 

In small proportions we just beauties see, 
And in short measures life may perfect be. 

— Ben Jonson. 

Born 1574; Died 1637. 


265 


“ MAMMA, THERE’S YOUR WOOD!” 


Sometime ago my wife and I were spending 
a few weeks at a country farmhouse where 
the fires were all fed with wood in place of 
coal. 

In the evening our hostess, finding her 
wood-box needed replenishing, went to the 
kitchen door and called to her three sons, 
aged, respectively, ten, eight, and three, who 
were playing in the backyard. She said 
“ Boys, mamma’s wood-box is empty, bring 
her some right away.” The oldest boy en- 
tered the kitchen with a huge armful, saying, 
as he dropped it in the wood-box, “ Mamma, 
there’s your wood.” “ Thank you, my son,” 
said the mother. Soon he was followed by 
the second son, over to the wood-box, with 
as ready a smile as his big brother, but with 
a smaller armful, which he also dropped into 
the box, saying as he did so, “ Mamma, there’s 
your wood.” In tender tones the mother 
said, “ Thank you, my dear,” and brushed the 
splinters from his coat and sent him, happy, 
back to his play. Just then we heard a little 
squall. The mother ran to the back door. 
Little Bob, the baby, had fallen at the bottom 
of the three steps leading up to the kitchen 
door in his effort to emulate his elder brothers 
in helping mother. There he lay squealing 

266 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 267 

“ to beat the band,” still tightly clasping his 
burden. The mother picked up the boy, 
wood and all, and carried him into the house 
and over to the box, when his little arm re- 
laxed and two tiny sticks of wood fell into 
the box. He looked into his mother’s face 
through tears and said, “ Mamma, there’s 
your wood; there’s your wood, mamma.” 
The mother kissed him, exclaiming tenderly, 
“ Bless your little heart ! ” and, wiping the 
tears from his eyes, sent him back to his 
play, his young heart happy and well con- 
tent. Which of the three boys did the most? 

The least of God’s children, even though 
they stumble and fall in trying to perform a 
task of love, shall be accounted as strong as 
the greatest. 

“ The good one tries to do 

Shall stand as if ’twere done; 

God finishes the work 
By noble hands begun.” 


DEAD LIKE A DOG 


At the close of one of my meetings in a 
small Western town, a man of bitterly athe- 
istic type addressed me: “ Mr. Meakin, your 
address was all right, and I enjoyed it, and 
your poems were fine, but that part of your 
address, the over-yonder business, after we 
are dead, doesn’t appeal to me at all. It is 
all 4 tommyrot.’ I don’t believe it. 

44 1 believe when I am dead, I am like a 
dog; I’m dead, and that’s the end of it/’ I 
replied, 44 Is that so? Well,” said I, 44 1 don’t 
care what you believe, old man, about the 
over yonder, or what you are when you’re 
dead. The question is, Are you a dog while 
living? and so long as you are not a dog while 
living, I am satisfied. All that interests me 
is, What are you doing, and what are your 
beliefs and works about the Here and for 
the Now? The man who argues on some- 
thing he knows little or nothing about, to say 
the least, not only shows his stupidity but is 
very silly. As for me, when my summons 
comes to go over yonder, I should like to be 
worthy of that epitaph by Bobby Burns, on 
the tombstone of a friend: 

44 4 An honest man here lies at rest 

As e’er God with His image blest; 

268 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 269 

The friend of man, the friend of truth; 
The friend of age and guide of youth. 

Few hearts like his with virtue warmed; 
Few heads with knowledge so informed. 

If there’s another world, he lives in bliss; 
If there is none, he made the best of this.’ ” 


THERE IS NO DEATH 

The desire of the human heart to be re- 
membered after death is universal. Is Jesus 
dead? Is Pythagoras dead? Is Socrates 
dead? Is Shakespeare dead? Is Columbus 
dead? Are Washington, Adams, Jefferson, 
Paine, Garrison, and Lincoln dead? Are any 
of the helpers and uplifters of mankind dead? 
No! No! The mortal casket has returned to 
the bosom of mother earth, but they still live 
in the hearts of men. 

“ Lo ! as hid seeds shoot after rainless 
years, so good and evil, pains and pleasures, 
hates and loves and all dead deeds come forth 
again, bearing bright leaves or dark, sweet 
fruit or sour.” 

— “ Light of Asia,” Arnold. 


“ I DIDN’T THINK ” 

Many men have no thought, no ambition, 
no purpose in life. They give no heed to the 
morrow. It is an established fact that every 
man who has the interest and welfare of 


270 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

humanity at heart has to be persistent in his 
effort to do humanity good. He has to con- 
tinually persuade men to be honest to them- 
selves. Ask a man to-day to do something 
worth while for himself and family by stop- 
ping his evil or foolish doings, and he will 
smile and say, “ Wait until to-morrow.’’ He 
will put off the things he should do, day after 
day, week after week, month after month, 
until he has sold himself to the devil by 
forming habits he cannot overcome. He 
forges chains that bind him, and that prevent 
him from putting into practice the very 
things necessary for his life and well-being. 
When questioned at the close of day as to his 
reasons, he replies, “ I didn’t think.” This 
answer, “ I didn’t think,” is given by the ma- 
jority of men. 

A few days ago I met a man on the street. 
He saluted me with a smile and a nod. We 
shook hands, and I said, “ Where did I meet 
you? Was it in the Knights of Pythias?” 
“ No.” “ Maybe in the Elks? ” “ No,” said 

he, “ I don’t think you remember me, but I 
will always remember you. I met and heard 
you one night in Colorado Springs about four 
years ago. I waited for you after the meet- 
ing, and we walked together five or six 
blocks, and, say — you gave me particular 

.” “Is that so?” I replied; “I didn’t 

talk to you personally, did I?” “No, but 
everything you said hit me, and hit me 
mighty hard. Previous to this I had spent 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


271 

my time and money in drinking, fooling, and 
gambling; in other words, living the life of a 
fool. I tell you, Mr. Meakin, you are a god- 
father to my higher or thinking self. Now 
I am married, have a pretty little home, a 
good wife and two babies, and a few good 
books on the shelf; yet I earn no more than 
I did before.” “ Evidently you did very little 
thinking previous to four years ago,” I said. 
“ Worse than that, sir. Before the evening 
I met you I didn’t know there was anything 
to think about.” 


USELESS TOIL 
An Evil Influence 

A well-to-do friend of mine was approached 
by a man who was in a destitute condition. 
My friend had no employment to give the 
man, but is a firm believer in independence, 
and wished to help the distressed one. On 
the hillside half a block from his home was 
a huge pile of stones. He conceived the idea 
of having the man carry the stones to the 
other side of the street. Removing these 
stones consumed an entire day, and on com- 
pletion of his task the laborer went for his 
pay, which was $2.00, asking, “ Have you 
anything else for me to do? ” Whereupon 
he was informed that on the following day 
he could carry the stones back to their orig- 
inal resting-place. The man said, “ For what 


272 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

purpose? ” And upon being told, “ To earn 
your $2.00,” he refused to labor at this pur- 
poseless task. 

I heard this man laughed at for a fool, 
but I think he was a wise man, and surely he 
was not long in finding some avenue of labor 
where well-directed energy would be properly 
recompensed. Had he gone on carrying 
stones from day to day he would be but one 
step removed from a useless, idle mendicant. 
He would soon be a living representation of 
Markham’s “ The Man with the Hoe.” 


SAIL ON AND ON 


Every man has in himself a continent of 
undiscovered character. Happy is he who 
acts the Columbus to his own soul. 

— Sir J. Stevens. 

I have aimed to illustrate the value of small 
or seemingly insignificant influences. Think 
now of the greater ones; but still the greater 
ones were small when first set in motion. 

Think of the life of Columbus; how he suf- 
fered, how he was reviled; yet he gave to the; 
generations of to-day, and those to follow, 
life’s grandest lesson — Sail on! 

No man suffered more indignities nor sur- 
mounted more gigantic obstacles than did 
Christopher Columbus. He accomplished as 
much as, if not more than, any other man, for 
the physical and mental development of the 
world. He illumined for the whole world 
the Atlantic Ocean, and discovered a land 
of majestic wonders. 

We to-day are reaping the harvest of his 
sowing. Though he was ignored, neglected, 
and left to die alone in poverty and distress, 
his lessons to the world will permeate all the 
coming ages. 

The character of this man, this splendid 
ideal, is beautifully portrayed in the grand 
273 


274 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

poem, “Columbus; or, Sail On,” by Joaquin 
Miller. It illustrates the hardships and 
vicissitudes, the trials and tribulations dur- 
ing the voyage of Columbus to America just 
previous to the discovery of this continent. 


COLUMBUS 


By Joaquin Miller 

Behind him lay the gray Azores, 

Behind the Gates of Hercules; 

Before him not the ghost of shores, 

Before him only shoreless seas. 

The good mate said : “ Now must we pray, 
For lo! the very stars are gone. 

Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say? ” 

“ Why, say Sail on ! sail on ! and on ! ” 

“ My men grow mutinous day by day; 

My men grow ghastly wan and weak.” 

The stout mate thought of home; a spray 
Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. 

“ What shall I say, brave Admiral, say, 

If we sight naught but seas at dawn? ” 

“ Why, you shall say at break of day, 

‘ Sail on ! sail on ! sail on ! and on ! ’ ” 

They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow, 
Until at last the blanched mate said: 

“ Why, now not even God would know 
Should I and all my men fall dead. 

These very winds forget their way, 

For God from these dread seas is gone. 

Now speak, brave Admiral, speak and say” — 
He said, “ Sail on ! sail on ! and on ! ” 

275 


276 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the 
mate: 

“ This mad sea shows his teeth to-night. 
He curls his lip, he lies in wait, 

With lifted teeth, as if to bite! 

Brave Admiral, say but one good word: 

What shall we do when hope is gone? ” 
The words leapt like a leaping sword: 

“ Sail on ! sail on ! sail on ! and on ! ” 

Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck, 

And peered through darkness. Ah, that 
night 

Of all dark nights! And then a speck — 

A light! a light! a light! a light! 

It grew, a starlit flag unfurled! 

It grew to be Time’s burst of dawn. 

He gained a world; he gave that world 
Its grandest lesson : “ On ! sail on ! ” 

This poem is used by special permission: 
copyrighted 1897, by the Whitaker and Ray 
Co., San Francisco, Cal. 


ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
Sixteenth President of the United States 

He was born and reared in squalor, as 
though the Infinite had intended, when giv- 
ing him the foremost instincts of his age, to 
so discipline him that no germ of vanity, or 
egotism, or pride would ever be permitted to 
sprout in his soul. His early life was en- 
vironed by a poverty that was disgraceful, by 
want that was pitiable, by a degradation that 
would have crushed a less resolute soul. 

As if to prepare him for the burden of 
carrying a nation’s woes, all his nature was 
hardened in the pitiable struggle for a liveli- 
hood, all but his heart; that was divine, and 
no earthly abrasion could wear away in the 
least its celestial texture. 

His first cap was a coonskin cap; his first 
shoes stogies; his first trousers were all too 
short for his ungainly limbs; but he cared 
not at all for such things. The burden of a 
race in chains was upon his soul; at the same 
time a measureless love of country was in 
his heart, and how the wrong could be abated 
without shattering the Republic was the 
problem that had been worked at in vain for 
solution for thirty years. 

Lincoln stood alone, rugged, majestic. His 
277 


278 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

was a nature childlike in simplicity, brave, 
direct, loving, and lovable, the embodiment 
of all that was great and good in manhood — 
his life, the price of a deathless love of coun- 
try and fellow man. His life — his death, an 
inspiration and a benediction. 

When at last the whole mighty responsi- 
bility of preserving his country was given to 
him, he took up the burden with premoni- 
tions that one of the sacrifices was to be his 
own life, but he faltered not. His native 
integrity and sense of right would not per- 
mit him to shirk one duty, but with a reso- 
lute resolve, half concealed by a mirth that 
never forsook him, “ he trod that winepress 
alone.” He was the sublimest man and his 
influence the most powerful of any of 
America’s sons. He is now a gentle memory. 

. . . . And so he came. 

From prairie cabin up to Capitol, 

One fair ideal led our chieftain on. 

For ever more he burned to do his deed 
With the fine stroke and gesture of a king. 
He built the rail-pile as he built the state, 
Pouring his splendid strength through every 
blow, 

The conscience of him testing every stroke, 
To make his deed the measure of a man. 

— Edwin Markham. 

From poem “ Lincoln, the Man of the 
People.” 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


279 


YOUR MISSION 

We appreciate the fact that we cannot all 
be as Columbus, Shakespeare, or Lincoln, but 
we do know that we can all be more than we 
are. We may make our own greatness within 
ourselves. We should all strive to play our 
part, whether small or great, in the wonder- 
ful drama of life. 


If you cannot on the ocean 
Sail among the swiftest fleet; 
Rocking on the highest billows, 
Laughing at the storms you meet; 
You can stand among the sailors 
Anchored yet within the bay; 

You can lend a hand to help them 
As they launch their boat away. 


If you are too weak to journey 
Up the mountain steep and high, 
You can stand within the valley 
While the multitude goes by. 

You can chant in happy measure 
As they slowly pass along; 

Though they may forget the singer, 
They will not forget the song. 

— Ellen M. H. Gates. 


BLINDY’S CORNER 


In walking leisurely along one of the busy 
streets, among the busy throngs in New 
York City, I noticed on the corner, without 
any particular or definite thought, a little 
boy standing as motionless as a statue, his 
face and eyes uplifted as though gazing into 
space. At this moment a ragged little ur- 
chin, a newsboy, ran in front of me, calling 
his papers, “ Here’s your Times, Herald, 
Tribune, Post, and Star.” I called to the 
little fellow and said, “ Give me the Tribune.” 
The boy looked at me, then glanced at the 
boy on the corner and answered in newsboy’s 
style, “Nop!” I repeated, “Give me the 
Tribune,” and again the boy answered, 
“ Nop! ” and with the word on his lips he ran 
to the corner and took a paper from off the 
arm of the boy and brought it to me. I 
gave him his pennies, and he ran away and 
handed the money to the “ statue ” boy 
standing on the corner. 

I became deeply interested and seemingly, 
to some extent, an annoyance to the “ kid.” 
I said, “ My boy, why wouldn’t you sell me 
a paper from your pile; you had plenty of 
those I asked for.” The boy in slangy style 
said, “ Well, Mister, I don’t mind telling you, 
sir; but say, do you see that little kid over 

280 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


281 


there standin’ on the corner? ” I answered, 
“Yes, I see the little fellow.” Said he, 
“ Well, that little kid, he’s blind and can’t 
get about, and us kids all about here have 
made up our minds that none of us’ll sell any 
papers on this corner, ’cause this is Blindy’s 
corner — this is Blindy’s corner. Good-by, 
sir.” And he had mingled with the crowd, 
singing his familiar song, “ Here’s your 
Times, Herald, Tribune, Post, and Star.” 

I never heard a sweeter song in all my life 
than that of the newsboy. It was the song 
of fraternal love. 


THE NODDING FLOWER 


Thomas Gray, in his beautiful “ Elegy 
Written in a Country Churchyard/’ said: 

“ Full many a gem of purest ray serene 

The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear; 
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 
And waste its sweetness on the desert 


This is not absolutely true, and, if so, we 
will apply a different meaning to the beauti- 
ful words. 

The little flower that nods and bends on 
the hillside, though not seen by human eyes, 
beautifies the world and casts its fragrance 
just the same. The winds of heaven waft 
the perfume downward to the valleys below. 
The aged mother, the sick girl and the ro- 
bust man inhale the perfume of that little 
flower. It gives them health, hope, and 
courage. So it is with each of us; as the 
little flower casts its fragrance, so do we cast 
our influence. We either cheer or discour- 
age, bless or curse; we either cast sunshine 
or clouds. The question is, “ Which shall 
it be? ” If we want light and love and pu- 
rity, we must live it. 


282 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 283 

“ Oh, scatter the germs of the beautiful, 

By the wayside let them fall, 

That the rose may bloom by the cottage 
gate, 

And the vine on the cottage wall. 

Yes, scatter the germs of the beautiful 
In the depths of the human soul.” 

A good life is built up by slow degrees, 
and is hourly changing for better or for 
worse according to influences or the images 
which flit across it. In other words, we can 
never be to-day what we were yesterday, 
and we can never be to-morrow what we are 
to-day. I am a part of all that I have met. 


MACHINE CIVILIZATION 


So-called civilization in its present stage of 
pennies, poverty, pomp, and show, wealth 
and worry, small souls and small pay, creeds 
and greeds, fool sense and no confidence, 
public clamor and hurrah, is simply a heart- 
less machine, causing otherwise a happy hu- 
man life to be cold and cheerless, unattrac- 
tive, and hopeless. To-day the clanking 
wheels of selfish “ system ” and “ red tape ” 
in a never-ceasing grind are a continuous 
menace, a destroyer of human life, of love 
and happiness. 

The toiler must register on entering the 
shop, and if one minute late it costs the poor 
girl one cent; if ten minutes late, ten pennies, 
her wages being ten cents an hour. The 
master comes at any time, the slave must be 
on duty all the time, because he or she is a 
part of the machine. The workshop, store, 
or factory is a cheerless, sunless hole where 
the toiler toils because he has to, the pur- 
pose being to get something to eat. If the 
superior people, the masters and their hench- 
men, would only give a sunny smile and a 
cheery good-morning to the common people 
on their coming to work, the burdens and 
worries of the day would be very much light- 
ened; but no! this would detract from the 

284 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 285 

machine dignity. The master’s face on en- 
tering the mill is devoid of a smile; in its 
stead, it seems to tell a sad story of his at- 
tempt to swallow a liver pill and by acci- 
dent he was compelled to chew it. He 
wraps himself in the robes of egotism — “ I 
am greater than thou ” — and by so doing ex- 
tinguishes the humane light of his soul. 
Let us be humane to human beings, rather 
than scientific to machines. 

The man who claims no sentiment in busi- 
ness and means it is an animal; watch him 
or he’ll bite you. Why wouldn’t he? 

By doing our duty and only our duty (ma- 
chine duty) our doings are incomplete. 
Every act embracing the elements of duty 
must be cheerfully done, and to make the 
act complete love must be the basis of every 
duty. There can be no fraternal love be- 
tween a master and a slave. There should 
not be either master or slave in this country 
or any other country. 

If a workman slips a cog in his daily grind, 
through ill health, or by a simple blunder or 
mistake, his supply for sustenance is cut off, 
vanishes at once; under pay and thought- 
lessness have rendered him or her helpless, 
and he is crushed and thrown out into the 
poverty junk pile, unnoticed and uncared for. 
And yet some people wonder at the increase 
of crime, and urge that more detectives be 
hired to hunt out and punish the victims of 
our boasted civilization. 

The clanking wheels of never-ending 


286 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


routine system and false economy in this 
awful grab game of machine life have robbed 
mankind of confidence in man, and taken 
from the face of youth its morning glow. 
They have filled the hearts of men with 
hypocrisy, suspicion, and bitterness. 

Fear, devilish fear (of losing a “job”), 
gaunt-eyed and cunning, stalks throughout 
the land, making of men chatterers, syco- 
phants, and fawners. 

This so-called civilization controlled by 
selfishness is robbing humanity of heart, of 
sunshine, and of sentiment; these heartless 
systems have forced an age upon us of mas- 
ters and slaves, and poor human beings are 
of little, if any, value in the commercial 
markets. 

Thousands of earth’s best people have been 
driven into insane asylums and to suicide 
graves. 

At this writing the decorative, strutting 
officers of the great military department of 
our government are demolishing even the 
wording of the sentiment carried in an ex- 
change of letters, by abolishing the fraternal 
custom of placing “ Dear sir,” “ Friend,” 
“ Yours truly,” “ Respectfully,” etc., as su- 
perfluous, useless, and, of course, for the pur- 
pose of saving a penny in the printing bill 
of a ream of paper. 

If it were not for the splendid souls, the 
fraternal sentimental workers of the world, 
and blending with these the undying hope of 
a higher and broader destiny for man, human 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 287 

life would be adjudged by the thinking few 
as a monstrous blunder, a farce, a fraud, a 
tragedy. 

Fraternal love is an outcast wandering far 
away from the hearts of men. We must 
bring her back and give to her her proper 
standing in the temple of the mind, or hu- 
mankind will retrograde and go back to jun- 
gle life and living. Surely this is what Ten- 
nyson had in mind when he said: 

“ Man as yet is being made, and ere the Age 
of Ages, 

Shall not aeon after aeon pass and touch 
him into shape? ” 


LOVE AND MARRIAGE 


The one main reason why two persons 
should marry is that they love each other. 
The question as to whether they do love 
each other can only or actually be told or 
known by their own two selves. The di- 
vorce courts furnish proof that many of 
those who marry are fooled, and fool them- 
selves, with what is termed “ love.” 

Of course, while we recognize the fact that 
“ love is absolutely blind,” we must expect 
troubles, for an important sense is lost, and 
we are bound to have many failures under 
such conditions in our marriage system. To 
be blind also takes away, to a very great 
extent, the judging sense. 

“ But there they are, tied up for life, and the 
best that they can do 

Is to hide their shame and wretchedness 
and try to worry through.” 

The present plan of living and of getting 
a living produces false standards. Many 
people marry, or sell themselves in marriage, 
for the support of the body, our present so- 
called civilization having carried humanity 
away from the purer, natural, or simpler way 
of living, and in the mating of the human 
288 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 289 

family. Yet, after all, love is the only basis 
for a proper selection of two human hearts 
for the building of another home. There- 
fore the eugenic crank, or the would-be 
“ stock raiser,” has no designated place or 
position in the nursery of mankind. 

People will never be mated nor brought 
together by the same plan as cattle are man- 
aged; and if ever the state or the nation 
should so decide, who shall be the dictator, 
who shall be the owner of the ranch, the 
boss selector of breeds and grades! We are 
dealing with human beings — men and women 
— not cattle. 

If, as it is claimed, “ love is blind,” would 
it not be a much better plan or a better idea 
to endeavor to open the eyes of love by a 
process of education, by teaching and de- 
veloping in man and woman self-control, by 
better thinking, so that nature’s forces may 
be used and enjoyed, not abused and de- 
stroyed, and that love and reason may rule 
in place of passion and animal impulse? 

The controlling force and the most im- 
portant phase or question of civilized life is 
the mating of the male and female, man and 
woman; and if the dream of civilization is 
to be realized, or if it be of any worth at all, 
then our hopes and aspirations depend en- 
tirely upon the creation of homes; for unless 
we have harmonious blendings in our mar- 
riage relationships the home can never be a 
home in the real and higher sense of the 
term. 


2go 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


Young men and young women must be 
taught, and they must become fully cognizant 
of the fact, that marriage is the most im- 
portant step they may take in life — embrac- 
ing as it does the whole of life — to be sup- 
ported by love, honor, reason, and fidelity. 
They must learn that unless the force which 
is termed by poets the divine passion, or the 
creative energy, which is the moving force 
of all life, be under control of the higher and 
nobler self in man and woman it will be- 
come as a beastly thing, destructive of the 
majesty and beauty of divine manhood and 
womanhood. 

Children born of impure parents are a 
menace to civilization; they are a burden and 
a horror to themselves. There seems to be 
no aid and no pity for these poor wretches, 
who come into the world “ scarce half made 
up,” cursed before they are born. Next in 
the scale of wrong living and wrong doing 
is bringing into the world children — when 
not wanted — children who are unwelcome 
guests from the very inception of life. They 
come into the world unsought and unloved, 
not wanted; they are pushed out into life’s 
ocean and set adrift, and they drift without 
a beacon light or a sail; they are innately 
conscious of their native weakness, and feel 
personally their intrusion, their unwelcome- 
ness. Handicapped on all sides, these poor 
things move about on the earth with heads 
bowed, weaklings by nature, trembling in 
body and wandering in mind; when they 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


291 


come in contact with or when in the pres- 
ence of men, instead of standing erect as men 
do, or should do, face to face, they creep and 
crawl and fawn, simply walking apologies 
for being alive. 

It is a very delicate question as to the 
wisdom of even advocating national or state 
control or improvement on these lines. 

Statesmen, or men in control of public 
affairs, are not always wise men, nor are 
they at all times the wisest men in the land; 
still something should be done through a 
council of thinking men toward preventing 
the vicious, the vile, the beastly, the incom- 
petent from producing their kind. 

Vicious criminals, by their vile actions, 
surrender their rights of liberty, and with it 
they should be divested of every liberty that 
would contribute to the moral degeneracy 
and to the destruction of the race. 

The ordinary human can be educated and 
developed, and in this development lies the 
hope of the ages for the betterment of man- 
kind. We must supplant ignorance by 
knowledge. 

To have good children we must create 
pure ideals and live in goodness and in truth 
within ourselves, both before marriage and 
after marriage. Clean, thoughtful morality 
is the keynote to a higher and better civiliza-. 
tion. Such can never be accomplished, and 
this can never be a decent world to live in, 
until such a plane or such a condition of life 
is reached by the human family. 


292 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

We may never hope for a race of thinking, 
pure, honest men until the world is peopled 
by clean, moral, thinking parents. 

To a very great extent we may say in 
truth — as we make them, so they are. 

Out of evil, evil grows, and it scatters its 
evil poison in the lives and hearts of men. 

“ Begot in hate and lustfulness and nurtured 
well with grief, 

What blame to such a progeny were it to 
act the thief? ” 

Out of purity, purity buds, and its flower 
thrives, blesses, and cheers humanity all 
along life’s pathway. 

“ There is ne’er a joy beneath the sun 
That will compare with this — 

The blending of two hearts in one, 

The cream of earthly bliss.” 

Such a union knows no waning — -rolling 
years but give it strength. 

Marriage is a failure only where it is not 
understood, and when not lived as it should 
be lived. 


TO A YOUNG MAN 


Not many men, I suppose, are married 
against their will, but there are very many 
men who marry against their better judg- 
ment. 

Young man, if you possess any thought 
or reasoning power at all, and you intend to 
use it for your own good and welfare, so that 
you may be in harmony with life’s purposes, 
its joys, its pleasures, and its successes, you 
will surely marry while you are a young 
man. Every worthy commencement should 
be begun at the proper starting point, and in 
matrimony especially so, and it should be 
brought about by thoughtful care and with 
the calmest judgment, to the end that every 
phase of life, love, and living may intertwine 
until a unison of thought and action blend- 
ing beautifully in a harmonious whole may 
contribute happily toward a successful, joy- 
ous, peaceful journey down the path of the 
years. Therefore, to this end, you must use 
the best of care in the selection of a wife, a 
partner, a traveling companion, for a long 
journey, which embraces life itself. During 
the transition period from youth to manhood, 
or in early manhood, you should look about 
you and find a good ordinary girl — not one 
293 


294 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

of style, fripperies, and follies, but one of 
those girls who give every indication of 
possessing the qualities necessary for the 
making of a splendid woman — a wife — a 
mother — the queen of a home. If you marry 
a butterfly, a woman of feathers and vanity, 
you will have no success, no harmony, no 
peace in daily life in what is termed home. 
Do not deceive yourself by glamour, passion, 
or what is termed love at first sight, but rest 
assured that without thought and judgment 
chaotic failure will be the result. On the 
other hand, no man can be a success without 
the inspiration of a good and earnest woman. 

The first qualification to be sought in the 
selection of a woman for a wife is common 
sense and goodness; the next, and fully as 
important a factor as the first, is she must 
know how to, and enjoy keeping house, and 
be ever willing and ready to improve and to 
beautify the house and its surroundings, and 
make it a home in all that the term implies. 
Such a woman will naturally possess and de- 
velop many other talents, but all these are 
necessarily and must be secondary. If a 
woman is not domestic in her tastes and 
created so by nature, if she can neither cook 
nor serve, nor cares to learn, then wherever 
she may live there is no home about it — such 
a house is but an empty shell, a stopping 
place. There is no word in our language so 
badly misapplied as is the word “ home.” 

The home is the cornerstone of civiliza- 
tion; there is nothing outside of it. The 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


295 


living with a woman in four square walls 
does not constitute a home ; such a place never 
was and never will be worth living for or fight- 
ing for. Peace, patriotism, and prosperity 
crowned with love will not and cannot exist 
anywhere, either in a cabin, a house, or a na- 
tion only by and through the refining and in- 
spiring influences of a genuine home, and 
Home is only where a woman, “ a Mother,” 
lives and reigns in tenderness and love. 


TO A YOUNG WOMAN 


Each individual life from the time of a 
mother’s lullaby to the funeral requiem may 
be to a very great extent made happy, joy- 
ous, and successful, or, to the contrary, very 
unhappy and very distressingly unsuccessful, 
all according to our individual care and man- 
agement. 

Young woman, you ought to learn in early 
life that the sorrows, the pain, and the de- 
struction in and of the best things of life are 
brought about by thoughtless, silly blunders 
made while in youth, and this is especially so 
in the setting sail on the sea of matrimony- 
marriage. It is the stumbling places on life’s 
way that I would warn you against in these 
pages. First of all, you had better cast out 
of your mind the very alluring, misleading, 
and mistaken idea of “ love at first sight/’ 
There never was, there never can be such a 
condition as “ love at first sight.” There 
may be an admiration aroused at first sight, 
and this may at times develop into love, as 
we journey down the years; but love, real 
love, between the intelligent male and female 
is not of spontaneous birth, but it is neces- 
sarily, from its social beginning, of slow and 
steady growth. 

The oak, which is very slow in maturing, 

296 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


297 

lasts in life hundreds of years. Love is 
more lasting than the oak, for real love is 
everlasting. Love in its earlier stages is as 
delicate as a flower and requires devout care 
and loving, honest attention, until down the 
passing years, naturally, every experience 
but gives it strength and symmetrical 
beauty. 

In the placing or the beginning of your 
association for the creation of love, do not 
for a moment waste your precious thoughts 
and heartbeats on a “ scrub ” of a man; if 
you do, your life will be one of coldness, sor- 
row, pain, and anguish. It will mean death 
to your real life, for without love there is no 
life worth the living. 

Do not sell your soul by marrying a man 
for the purpose of reforming him — you must 
not exchange highest values in a game of 
chance, for wrecked values. If you do, you 
have gone into the devil’s workshop, and will 
necessarily become one of his workmen. 

The marriage robes must consist of purity 
and love; they must not be defiled or polluted 
in the filthy pools of lust and low life. Real 
love and right marriages are not for sale or 
exchange, either in society or in financial 
markets. 

Do not marry a man because he be either 
rich or poor; these conditions should cut no 
figure in the reckoning. 

Solve the question: Is he an honest, clean, 
intelligent man, ambitious to work, to make 
a name and a reputation for himself; a man 


298 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

of honest character whom you earnestly be- 
lieve will make a good husband, kind, gen- 
erous, and as true as the compass? Is he 
broad-minded, sole proprietor of himself, a 
free man, a thinker? Is he generous and big- 
hearted, yet economical? Is he prompt in 
word and deed, true to his promises? Is he 
kind, thoughtful, and helpful to his parents 
and family? There is but little to fear if 
you discover such a man as herein described. 

Avoid — 

If he be a spendthrift and “ blows ” in his 
money without sense or judgment; ruin and 
disgrace generally come to him who knows 
not the value of a dollar. He tampers with 
honor and is on dangerous ground. 

Avoid — 

If he be stingy and mean and lives and 
exists on a penny basis; for surely your life 
would be an unhappy wreck with this the 
meanest man of creation. 

Avoid — 

If he be filled and dwarfed with ignorance 
and superstition. 

Young woman! 

When you marry, marry a real man; if 
you cannot find one, then at least marry one 
who gives every indication of some day reach- 
ing the heights of an intellectual reasoning 
manhood. 


TO BOTH— THINKERS 


Do not marry with those who are grounded 
in a system of forms and ceremonies, who 
are in a mental rut and simply through cus- 
tom are saving a statuette soul by a station- 
ary religion. Such marriages as these in 
nearly every instance result disastrously. 
To be successful and happy in a marital re- 
lationship neither man nor woman will wed 
with those whose views and sentiments are 
too far apart from their own, and it is well 
to understand this rule will apply to different 
races as well as to different religions. 

How to love and to live in harmony and 
truth in married life might almost be termed 
a scientific proposition. 

Neither party must be selfish; both must 
be reasonable. 

Both must be clean and pure with the same 
standard of morality. 

Neither must be intemperate in anything; 
both must be thoughtful and use their best 
judgment. 

Neither should have a bad temper; tempers 
must be turned into a moving force. 

Neither must be stupid; both must be 
students and advance in life together. 

The higher pleasure of one should be culti- 
vated and made the pleasure of both. 

299 


3 oo A MAN WORTH WHILE 

Express in loving words each morning ad- 
miration for each other; speak the word un- 
der any and all conditions, and life together 
will ever be one grand sweet song. 

So long as a husband and wife are active 
members in an admiration society consisting 
of just these two, the charter will never be 
surrendered. 


HOME, SWEET HOME 


THE FAMILY IS THE CRADLE OF 
MANKIND 

The real home is the fountain of love and 
purity, and God’s ministering angel here 
upon earth is woman — the foundation of the. 
home. 

When a man woos and wins a woman and 
leads her to the altar, if he be a true man, 
he will realize the sacred duty he has taken 
upon himself. From that very moment that 
woman is dependent upon him. In the blos- 
som of her youth she gives to him her years 
of energy and strength. She assumes for 
him the responsibility of motherhood. He. 
now must be the oak, she the vine; both 
equal, yet she with one more right — that is, 
the right to be protected. 


JOHN HOWARD PAYNE 

(Born New York City, June 9, 1792; 
died April 1, 1852.) 

Another of those seemingly unimportant 
lives, yet how pure and great and beneficial 
was its influence. 


301 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


302 

Sixty years ago, at Tunis, in far-off northern 
Africa, the soul of John Howard Payne took 
its flight to its eternal home, but upon this 
earthly shore it left a monument more en- 
during than marble or bronze, higher than 
the loftiest pinnacle, broader and more ex- 
pansive than earth itself, and deeper than 
the depths of the sea. 

So long as love warms the hearts of hu- 
mankind, so long as virtue is revered and 
God is God, his immortal anthem 

“ HOME, SWEET HOME ” 

will be love’s cradle song. 

John Howard Payne’s breath of song will 
be to the present and generations yet unborn 
like the perfume of the tiny flower. It will 
give hope to the weary, courage to the weak, 
and cheer to the sorrowing. 

“Time wrecks the proudest piles we raise; 
The towers, the domes, the temples fall; 

The fortress crumbles and decays, 

One breath of song outlasts them all.” 

The value of a life is determined by two 
things — the happiness we get out of it, the 
influences we leave on others. 

HOME 

After all, the main source or influence of 
all good, whether rich or humble, is in the 
home. The home is the fountain of love and 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


303 

purity. It is the cradle of hope, where 
dreams of immortality first quicken the soul 
to the infinite glories of human destiny. It 
is this hope which opens to us glimpses of 
the gates of gold. 

Let not this beautiful word “ home ” be 
misunderstood nor misapplied. 

“ Home’s not merely four square walls, 
Though with pictures hung and gilded. 

Home is where affection calls, 

Filled with shrines the heart hath builded. 

Home — go watch the faithful dove, 

Sailing in the heaven above us, 

Home is where there’s one to love, 

Home is where there’s one to love us. 

“ Home’s not merely roof and room, 

It needs something to endear it. 

Home is where the heart can bloom, 

Where there’s some kind lip to cheer it. 

What is home with none to meet, 

None to welcome, none to greet us? 

Home is sweet, and only sweet, 

Where there’s one we love to meet us.” 

The word “ home ” is often applied to the 
stately mansion enveloped in glittering shams 
and silly pride, where fraternal love is an 
outcast. The name home is often given to 
the towering castles whose marble walls are 
no less cold than the cheerless hearts of those 
who dwell therein. 

We hear it applied to the house of feasting, 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


304 

whose doors are but the curtains which hide 
the winepress and the banquet table, where 
the inmates grow fat on the toil of others 
and revel in the blood-wine of half-paid suf- 
fering millions. 

No! no! a thousand times no! These are 
not homes. Let me live in a cottage, how- 
ever humble, whose walls are covered with 
tender vine, whose roof shelters the brave 
and generous. Let me live where love con- 
trols the heart and brain; where every heart- 
beat is in sympathy with the downcast ^nd 
unfortunate; where all enrolled dwell in har- 
mony in the kingdom of the unselfish, where 
reason gives the light and fear gives way to 
freedom, and this is home. 


CHARACTER 

Character is molded at the mother’s knee, 
and in the light of her loving eye is born 
the influence that makes its impress upon 
the whole household and carries each dear 
one through all dangers and difficulties on- 
ward and upward to the sun-kissed hills of 
prosperity and happiness. 

The proper care of the child insures a va- 
cant cell in the penitentiary in the future. 
Under the influence of the so-called home 
which is merely a stopping place, we find 
the dissipator, the pander to low life, the 
card-fiend, the gambler, the drinker, the 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 305 

higher intellectual pursuits are cast aside and 
“ the wages of sin is death.” 

Woman, the all-refining influence, has ele- 
vated man from a barbarous root-eater up to 
the present type of manhood. No man can 
be successful without the inspiration of 
woman. His success begins when once in 
love with a woman. The applause of the 
multitude is nothing to him unless she ap- 
plauds. 

Napoleon was a great soldier. He con- 
quered nations and built up an earthly king- 
dom; but when he pushed Josephine from his 
heart and home, he faded away like a snow- 
man before a noonday sun. 

Christ stands as the ideal of mankind, yet 
back of Jesus we see the Madonna. 

Woman, pure as snow, man’s faithful 
friend, mother, wife, daughter, sister, sweet- 
heart. Woman! God bless her. 

“ Not she with trait’rous kiss 
Her Saviour stung, 

Not she denied Him with unholy tongue; 

She, while apostles shrank, could danger 
brave, 

Last at his cross, earliest at his grave.” 

In bloody war man wounds and kills, 
woman follows to heal and soothe. Abraham 
Lincoln emancipated the slaves, but Harriet 
Beecher Stowe helped to make them free by 
writing “ Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” 

Woman — the wife, the mother, the light 


306 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

and the fountain of all goodness. As Josiah 
G. Holland said: 

“ More human, more divine than we, 

In truth, half human, half divine, 

Is woman, when good stars agree 
To temper with their beams benign 
The hour of her nativity. 

“ The fairest flower that green earth bears, 
Bright with the dew and light of heaven, 
Is, of the double life she wears, 

The type, in grace and glory given, 

By soil and sun in equal shares. 

“ O woman ! mother, woman, wife ! 

The sweetest names that language knows. 
Thy breast with holy motives rife 
With holiest affection glows. 

Thou queen, thou angel of my life.” 


THE NECK 

Apropos of woman’s influence, I am re- 
minded of a humorous happening at a certain 
church testimony meeting I visited in a small 
country town. An old man in the congrega- 
tion arose and said: “ Brothers and Sisters, 
I wish to bear my testimony to the truth of 
the gospel, and I am going to say a word 
about the home and its management, and I 
want to say right here that every home 
should have a head. The man should be the 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 307 

head and ‘ boss the job 9 all the time. I am 
the head of my family, and if you men will 
be the heads of your families like I have been 
the head of mine, the Lord will bless you as 
he has blessed me. — Amen” Then his wife 
arose, and also bore her testimony of the 
truth of the gospel and concluded with: 
“John is right in what he says about the 
man being the head of the family. John is 
a very good man and he is the head of our 
family, and we have gotten well off in this 
country, but, brothers and sisters, I want you 
to distinctly understand that, although John 
is the head of the family, I am the neck, and 
I turn that head just whichever way I want 
it to go.” 

Woman, it is your duty, assigned by Al- 
mighty God, to turn man’s head and face to 
the light of right living. Man, woman, and 
home must be in perfect harmony. If 
woman’s mission is all-important, then man’s 
mission is equally so. The perfect home is 
the main factor of human development, and 
from this small circle the greatest good may 
come. Out of a single household may flow 
influences that stimulate the whole civilized 
world. 


Woman’s influence has made the world as 
good and as fair as it is to-day. Woman 
represents all the finer elements in nature, 
devotion, charity, self-sacrifice, truth, and 
love. 

“ They talk about a woman’s sphere, 

As though it had a limit! 

There’s not a place in earth or heaven, 
There’s not a task to mankind given; 
There’s not a blessing, or a woe; 

There’s not a whisper, ‘ yes ’ or ‘ no ’ ; 
There’s not a life, a death, or birth, 

That has a feather’s weight of worth, 
Without a woman in it. 

“ There’s not a pleasure gives us cheer, 
There’s not a joy attends us here, 

There’s not a song we learn to sing, 
There’s not a friend to whom we cling, 
There’s not a gift that’s worth the giving, 
There’s not a life that’s worth the living; 
In fact there’s nothing here on earth 
That one can count of any worth, 

Without a woman in it.” 


308 


IDEALS 


The example set by the parents is the 
child’s first schooling, and on that example 
the child’s development depends. The father 
and the mother are the ideals of the child 
until it comes in contact with the outer 
world. These ideals should always be 
worthy of emulation. The child, the youth, 
the man are made according to the influence 
of the home. 

The father is the ideal of the boy. The 
father follows the sports, the gaming table, 
the drink; the boy follows the father. 
Fathers, do you realize the great responsi- 
bility that rests upon you in your every ac- 
tion for that boy of yours? Did you ever 
hear the pretty story of the trapper in the 
woods? He kissed his loved ones good-by 
early one morning and left his cabin home 
to go in search of game. During the night 
previous the snow had gently fallen, cover- 
ing the ground with a fleecy mantle. He 
arrived at his destination and was in the act 
of setting his traps when upon the frosty, 
crisp, morning air came the sweet tones of 
a baby voice, calling, “Papa, papa!” “My 
child, my child, where are you?” cried the 
father, and the baby answered, “ I’s a-tum- 
309 


3 io A MAN WORTH WHILE 

min’, I’s a-tummin’, in papa’s tracks, in papa’s 
tracks.” 

Brother Man, let your tracks lead onward 
and upward to the sunlit fields of intellectual 
purity. We must guard against evil influ- 
ences; we must place upon our children an 
armor of integrity, not an armor of ice which 
melts away beneath the sun of temptation. 
We must ourselves aim to be what we ought 
to be. We will then make of ourselves and 
our family perpetual fountains of pure in- 
fluence. 


“ ‘ I’LL TAKE WHAT FATHER TAKES ’ ” 

“ It was early in the month of June, 

The sun was in the west, 

- When a merry, blithesome company 
Met at a public feast. 

Around the room rich garlands spread, 
And banners floated gay; 

Friends greeted friends right joyously 
Upon that festal day. 

The board was filled with choicest fare, 
The guests sat down to dine; 

Some called for bitter, some for stout, 

And some for rosy wine. 

Among this joyous company 
A modest youth appeared; 

Scarce sixteen summers had he seen, 

No ’spicuous snare he feared. 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 31 1 

An empty glass before the youth 
Soon drew the waiter near. 

‘ What will you have, sir? ’ he inquired, 
‘ Stout, bitter, mild, or clear? 9 

‘ We have rich supplies of foreign port, 
We have first-class wine and cakes.’ 

The youth with guileless look replied, 

‘ I’ll take what father takes.’ 

Swift as an arrow went the words 
Into his father’s ears, 

And soon a conflict deep and strong 
Awoke terrific fears. 

4 Have I not seen the strongest fall, 

The fairest led astray, 

And shall I on my only son 
Bestow a curse this day? 

‘No! Heaven forbid! 

Here, waiter, bring pure water unto me; 
My son shall have what father takes; 

My drink shall water be.’ ” 


CHARACTER IS NECESSARY 


Too many homes, too many societies, too 
many individuals pay too much attention to 
reputation and neglect character, the basis 
of human life, and so we have to a very 
great extent a false civilization. We build 
upon the sand, and the structure topples and 
falls with the slightest excitement or tempta- 
tion. In continually building conduct and 
reputation, we dethrone character ; we ex- 
change higher values for lower values. The 
youth begins at once to cultivate bad habits. 
He takes on forms of dissipation, the cigar- 
ette, the drink, the drug, the sports — yet he 
conforms to all the niceties and elegances of 
social etiquette; but he has no anchor, no 
character. He trusts to conduct and is led 
astray. 

Young man, 

“ ’Tis fearful building upon any sin; 

One mischief entered brings another in; 
The second draws a third; 

The third pulls more, 

Till they for all the rest 
Set ope the door. 

Then custom takes away the judging sense, 
And to offend 
We think it no offense.” 

312 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


3i3 


The progress and the value of a town, city,, 
or nation, depend upon the character of its 
people. When we have succeeded in build- 
ing noble characters, there will be no need 
of brutal enforcement of laws. 

We must establish a character which is 
the foundation of manhood, and here and 
now cast an influence which will bless the 
generations yet unborn. Character is higher 
than intellect, love, or wealth, because it di- 
rects the use of all three. Knowledge with 
character is everything; knowledge without 
character is nothing. The purity of love is 
determined by character. It is the character 
behind wealth that determines whether it 
shall be a blessing or a curse to society. 
Character is the controlling force of human 
life. True manly character may be likened 
unto a beautiful marble statue, but ever 
breathing the breath of life, standing placid 
and firm amid the crash of worlds and the 
clamor of men, proof against the blows of 
temptation. 


PERSEVERANCE 


NO TIME TO WASTE 

In a sleeper, traveling from Denver to 
Chicago, I passed a compliment or two with 
a gentleman who shared my compartment. 
He later invited me to go to the smoker and 
have a cigar. I said, “ Thank you, sir, but 
I don’t know how to smoke.” “ Don’t 
smoke! Well, come and have a game of 
cards while I smoke.” “ I’m sorry, sir,” I 
apologized, “ but I don’t know how to play 
cards.” “ Well,” said he, “ I should think 
you would learn to play cards, if for nothing 
else than to pass away the time.” (That’s 
what I wanted him to say.) I answered him 
by saying, “ Great God, man, I never had 
any time to pass away.” 

I continued by saying, “ My dear sir, did 
you ever stop and meditate for one moment 
upon the vastness, the magnitude, and the in- 
comprehensible possibilities of the human 
brain or the mind? 

“ Scientists tell us there are over two bil- 
lion cells in the human brain, and, although 
these cells are innumerable, we are told that 
each and every one is susceptible of develop- 
ment. The mind, sir, is vaster than the 
3M 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 315 

earth. I must either go onward and upward, 
or backward and downward. I have no 
time to waste. 

“ Threescore years ago, I was ushered into 
the world. I trotted from my mother’s 
knee at the age of ten, and since that time 
I have done my level best to polish the metal, 
to cultivate the talents, to develop at least a 
few of the cells of my brain. I am anxious 
to graduate from this mundane sphere to a 
life and mission supernal. This is why I 
have never had any time to pass away.” 

Now, friends, after sixty years of earnest 
endeavor, under most trying circumstances, 
I believe I have succeeded in developing pos- 
sibly one hundred of the two billion cells. 
Taking it for granted, then, that I have 
warmed and awakened into use one hundred 
of the cells, mathematicians will readily see 
that I have remaining one billion, nine hun- 
dred ninety-nine million, nine hundred ninety- 
nine thousand, nine hundred cells to be de- 
veloped, and according to the proverbial 
threescore and ten, I have but about ten 
more years for this development. I ask 
thinking people, in all candor, have I any 
time to pass away in gratifying any low 
tastes or desires, such as card-playing, chew- 
ing tobacco, smoking poisonous weeds, gor- 
mandizing and guzzling intoxicants? 

I am confident that you will answer this 
in the negative, — No! No! No! 

My purpose is not only to ask you to be 
sensible and good, but to try to point the way. 


3 i6 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

“ Hast thou aught to teach? 

Then teach it, preach it, 

Loud and long. 

Sing it, if it be a song. 

“ Be thou prophet, be thou poet? 

If thou know it, go it. 

Go it strong.” 

The most important quality for a success- 
ful life is perseverance — begin, continue, com- 
plete your work. The unstable never excel. 
The plodders leave the inconstant — the fickle. 
■ — far behind. 

Let us do the best with the endowments 
that are ours. God save us from the sin of 
underrating ourselves. Appropriate to thy- 
self that which is thine own, not thy broth- 
er’s, and God’s blessing will crown the effort. 

We have all made the start in the race 
of life. Some of us may have obtained the 
prizes. In the limelight of retrospection, 
while you drop a tear at the bier of neglected 
opportunities, remember that bitter regrets 
are unavailing; all the wishing in the world 
will not resurrect them. Why should you 
spoil to-day because you spoiled yesterday? 
We can neither evade nor avoid remorse. 

“ Not failures, but low aims are crimes.” 

Because the ghosts slip out of shadows, 
need we entertain them as friends? To 
throw in the fountain of life dead things of 
the past is like throwing into our well a 
dead animal to pollute its waters. Better 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 317 

take a nobler view of repentance, remember- 
ing that what a man does is generally worse 
than that which he is. 

What we do is of less importance than 
what we are. Plant flowers where you have 
destroyed them. 

If one page of life has been blotted, write 
upon the next page a story so true and sweet 
that the blot will be forgotten in the glory 
of the brighter. 

Pindar, in one of his odes, describes the 
return of a competitor from the great na- 
tional games. He speaks of him as hiding 
himself along the by-ways, not venturing to 
enter by the gates into the city or to be seen 
in any public place. Why? Because he had 
failed. He went out in the name of the city, 
equipped by fellow-citizens, to win honor 
for their name. But he has failed and he 
dare not meet them. You have failed. What 
is your next move? To hide your head in 
cowardly remorse? No! but to start afresh, 
like Wordsworth’s happy warrior, who com- 
prehends his trust and to that trust keeps 
faithful. 

You may enter the arena of life with flat- 
tering prospects, but unless you fix your eyes 
on the goal and bend every energy toward it, 
you will suffer an inglorious defeat. 

“Press on; surmount the rocky steeps, 
Climb boldly o’er the torrent’s arch; 

He fails alone who feebly creeps, 

He wins who dares the hero’s march; 


3 i8 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

Be thou a hero ! and with thy might 
Tramp on eternal snows its way, 

And through the ebon walls of night 
Hew down a passage unto day ! ” 

In the race of life to halt is to petrify. 
Daily we see human petrifactions that in- 
cline us to regard the world as a sort of 
museum, well stocked with statues and wax 
figures. It is easy to fill a niche, hard to 
bear the sweat and toil of running. For 
every hero there are swarms of idlers. Yet 
what worse fate can befall a man than to be 
stationary? The tree is dead that adds not 
every year a new ring to its girth, and we 
are dead if we add not perpetually to our 
being. The one supreme command is to ad- 
vance. 

A hand with ever-beckoning finger is the 
vision that fires each noble soul. To pause 
and look back is to repeat the old story — 
the vision vanishes, and nothing remains but 
a pillar of salt. Form your purpose and 
then Death or Victory. 

And now, in closing, let me hoist the signal 
of warning. Don’t forget what I said in the 
beginning. The only life that can be called 
successful is that which leaves us in the end 
truer and nobler men and women. Only 
those lives that have been true to them- 
selves and true to humanity feel the inex- 
pressible joy of being in harmony with the 
Universe. The perfect life is not the tinseled 
life. Our ambition should be higher than 


A MAN WORTH WHILE 


3i9 

to wear a jeweled crown or win the plaudits 
of the mob. 

These are the petty vanities, uncertain and 
fleeting, which leave only disappointments 
and regrets. Our aim and ambition should 
be to become strong, manly, buoyant, master- 
ful human beings; emotional, loving; our 
nerves, our senses, our hearts in tune with 
the infinite. This our ideal. This our 
dream. Lives that love, that sacrifice, that 
make prayers in deeds are the lives that 
radiate from the fount of God. They be- 
come one with the Universal soul; theirs is 
the richest life, the most successful life, they 
enrich themselves and all mankind. They 
are continually reaching out after high ideals, 
and there is no limit in this boundless uni- 
verse for the souls that want to soar. Then 
let us get out of the damp and musty cellars 
of superstition. Let us break the prison bars 
of ignorance and bigotry, and on wings of 
truth and hope let us mount through ether, 
sunward ! 

“ Then rise, man, rise and run, and 
Never give up — ’tis the secret of glory, 
Nothing so wise can philosophy preach; 
Think of the names that are famous in 
story. 

Never give up! to the lessons they teach, 
Never give up, though overladen with sor- 
row. 

Shake not the yoke, it will only more bit- 
terly gall, 


320 A MAN WORTH WHILE 

Remember there cometh a morrow, 
Fraught with delight to compensate all. 
Bear your fate with serenity, 

Crouch not ignobly, like a slave in the dust. 
Life’s but a race to realms of eternity; 
Great are its dangers, but run it we must.” 

























































































































































































































































































































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